The First Flower of Spring
by Evil Is A Relative Term
Summary: Because every ninja comes from somewhere. Lacking a presence in any ninja village, the Haruno are a clan just the same. Beholden to the traditions of her family, Sakura is changed, as are Team Seven's dynamics. What will become of them?
1. The Bell Calls Us

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Naruto franchise and this fanfiction is not intended to infringe on the copyright thereof.

Chapter One

-The Bell Calls Us-

The Haruno clan assembled only once every fifteen years, drawn from the far corners of the map to descend upon Mizu no Kuni. Though family, it was not love that drew them. Obedience, the instinct for survival, and the will of the oyakata-sama were the emotions that caused the clan to discard their everyday lives without a single qualm, the young and the old alike crawling if they must to their ancient, labyrinthine compound. For every fifteen years, the generation that had gone before prepared to indoctrinate the new in the reality of the Haruno. And, without fail, a new heir was chosen-a heir whose duty it would become to see that the cycle was enacted again in their time.

The oyakata-sama had no children of their own, so any parent of a child of the main line might put forward their offspring as a candidate for heir. But it was not a decision made lightly. For there could only be a single heir in every generation and those too weak to claim the title for their own were discarded, without exception, bias, or hesitation. For that was the way of the Haruno, reaching into the darkest, dimmest memories of the clan.

Haruno Chouko had not always been an Haruno. So it had been bemusement she had experienced when her husband had abruptly announced they were leaving Konohagakure no Sato. The emotion had been tinged with anger and perhaps faintly with relief when he told her of the gathering of the Haruno clan, for it was a meeting long overdue. She had never met her in-laws, though Katsuo had relatives in Konoha. She'd thought it odd, but loved him too blindly to protest.

This then was her chance to make a good impression, so she'd bundled up Sakura and their luggage without protest. There had been a noticeable tension in Haruno Ran and her son Shiho, but she'd thought their family strict. She never would have imagined this..._monstrosity. _

So she had turned, with her worries and fears, to the only women she knew in these place, to the one whose son was also endangered. Surely, she thought, surely Ran-san would also share a mother's horror.

Lips pressed unhappily together, Haruno Ran listened in silence to the diatribe of Katsuo's wife. A slowly building outrage simmered in her heart as the housewife dared to ramble on about the ugliness she perceived from the clan. About the danger to her precious pink-haired child. _And what of my son? _Ran thought viciously. _His hair is white. And in this clan, that is the brand of someone destined to die and live again for the good of another. Perhaps even for your daughter. The one you're talking about like she's a figurine made of glass. If she dies in this place, she won't feel it as a child. Those are the _true _monsters, Chouko-san. _

"And then Katsuo told me he'd nominated Sakura!" Chouko wailed without even the slightest attempt at dignity.

Ran felt her lips attempted to curl into a sneer. _You're an adult. Crying in public? _Out loud, she asked her, "And you don't believe Sakura has a chance at the position"

"I don't see how she could!" Chouko sniffled, "She's only a child! Katsuo and I couldn't even agree on whether or not she ought to attend the Academy."

White brows arched in disbelief. "Chouko-san," Ran inquired carefully, "Did Katsuo-san explain to you the nature of the Haruno kekkei genkei? None of the main branch children under five years of age are allowed to begin shinobi training, even should their parents wish it. It's strictly forbidden by oyakata-sama."

"I didn't...didn't really give him a chance. What with everything..."

"Even if you were disturbed by it, you should have let him explain," Ran told her ruthlessly. "Then you would have known that the test of the heir is a test of the bloodline. None of those children will be allowed to use their ninja tools and no one older than the age of ten can participate. What advantage those Academy attendees have will become null when faced with a newly awoken kekkei genkai."

Chouko paled abruptly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-." She cleared her throat, "Of course, you're worried about Shiho-kun and I'm falling to pieces about Sakura. Do you think...will they do _that _to him?" she asked quietly, as if she was speaking of a shameful act.

"It is his fate," Ran said after a pause. "And it will be his honor, if he is chosen. It was what he was born to do, after all."

Chouko leaned forward abruptly, placing both her hands over Ran's. "But it isn't _fate, _don't you see?" she pleaded her. "It's them. It's this family. It doesn't have to be like this. Let's take the children. Run away," she suggested frantically. "Shiho-kun is gentle and well-mannered, a very good child. You can't mean to sacrifice him to this madness!"

Ran pointedly withdrew her hands and rested them on her lap. "You heard what Katsuo-san told you," she said coldly, "but you did not _listen. _Do you believe that we branch clan members wish to live like this? And only a madman or a fool would wish the main house's kekkei genkai on themselves. It tears away all that makes a person human." She bit her tongue to keep from saying more. If her daughter resembled her in spirit, Ran had no doubt that young Sakura would fail the test. And that would be more than a pity, for Shiho had spoken to her in private.

Branch clan members could be chosen for main house members, yes, for there were few opportunities for members of the clan to interact and form connections on their own, but they were not without rights. If a branch member chose, they could appeal to oyakata-sama for the main house member of their choice. Whether or not he granted that appeal was strictly his whim, but the request could be made.

Shiho had expressed to her in halting words the desire to safeguard Sakura if her father decided his ambition was greater than his love for his daughter. And, grudgingly, Ran had agreed to his wish. For Shiho suffered from the secondary condition of the branch clan members, a chronic degenerative disease that would have only given him a few more years as a shinobi in any case before his organs would rapidly begin to fail.

By nature, the branch clan was a kind of parasitic existence. Ran herself was an anomaly, her continued good health a mystery in the face of her bloodline. Most branch family members were in decline by thirty and dead before their fiftieth year. Even at twenty-four, Shijo was beginning to show symptoms. Their disease was an intense calcification of the organs, reducing arterial and smooth muscle flexibility and increasing the strain of those same muscles and organs until their internal landscape resembled those of people four times their age.

But the Haruno branch clan was not limited by death in the same way as a normal human being. Perhaps as a result of their limited lifespan, the branch members had evolved a unique kekkei genkai that hinged on the main house.

For there couldn't have relatives more different in ability. Members of the main house were as long-lived as tortoises, born with pink hair that darkened to red with the development of their kekkai genkai. An ugly, monstrous thing it was, as different as the branch's evolutionary technique for survival as the night was from day.

And they were born to tie themselves to those monsters, leeching on to their lifespan through a jutsu known as _Walking in the White Moon Garden. _For when their weak, diseased bodies lost their usefulness as waking humans, they became reservoirs for their souls, their soft flesh eroding until only the skeleton remained. But not in a form recognizable as once being human. For in exchange for what passed as "life," they became a weapon, to be used by their new partner.

And those weapons were the only ones allowed in the killing field the tunnels beneath the compound would become as the children struggled to become the heir.

When she said as much to Chouko, the woman turned whiter still.

_For my son's sake, _Ran thought darkly, _you must be a stronger person than your mother, Haruno Sakura. _

Haruno Shiho was unaware of the conversation his mother was having only rooms away, occupied as he was with gently detaching a little girl from his pants leg. Fists tightly clenched in the loose fabric, Sakura wore a mulish expression.

"Sakura-chan," he said patiently, "why don't you want to play with the other children?" He could hear them faintly in the courtyard, playing kakurenbo, shrieking with mock fear and delight as the oni drew near. Knowledge of how deadly that game soon would turn made Shiho frown slightly, which did not reassure Sakura.

"Cousin Michiko is scary," Sakura protested, casting her gaze warily toward the courtyard.

Shiho blinked, then recalled the girl she was speaking of. He too had found her frightening, though he doubted their reasons were the same. There was a half-wild light in that little's girls eyes and a reckless disregard for the feelings of others that might have been only a bully's mentality in another family, but Shiho saw in her the signs of an early budding. With the gathering already upon them, oyakata-sama might choose to allow her to live, but if it had not been a gathering year, Shiho had no doubt she would have been culled. A child with a developed kekkei genkai had a natural resistance to the influence of a branch house member. In a worst-case scenario, they could be entirely deaf to the spirit of their weapon.

And for a branch member, consigned to do no more than murder for the rest of their existence, unable to communicate with the person with whom they should most be able to, it was a kind of living hell on earth. No one, not even oyakata-sama, would ask that of someone.

Shiho placed his hand gently on Sakura's petal-soft hair. "You don't have to play with cousin Michiko," he reassured her. "But the other children don't seem so bad. What about cousin Daiki?"

Sakura frowned up at him, but her grip slowly loosened. "Shiho-nii-chan," she asked quietly, pink brows furrowing, "Why are all the grown-ups so upset?"  
>Shiho silently cursed Sakura's mother, for it was not his place to explain such things to her. What did a child this young and coddled even know of death? Of obligation and loyalty to a clan? Nonetheless, he crouched down in front of her so that his eyes were level with hers. "The adults are upset because tonight is a very special night for the clan. Oyakata-sama hands down his judgments in the dark of the moon and then a white moon will rise just before the dawn. For the last three days, the clan has been counted, evaluated, and observed. Oyakata-sama and the elders have listened to the petitions for partnership and have watched the main house members for symptoms of kekkei genkai emergence. Now that they have a count, they can assign branch house members and prepare them to Walk in the White Moon Garden."<p>

Shiho watched as Sakura tried to follow what he was saying, but bemusement kept her brow wrinkled.

It wasn't as if the main house did not bud except on gathering years, but the work of maintaining the clan was carried out quietly in those years, the oyakata-sama contacting the immediate families of those involved and no more. But on a gathering year, all those activities were suspended, so there were three days of what seemed unending killing as branch members were called upon. But a month later, in the full of the moon, it would be the turn of the main house, as their children died trying to claim the seat of oyakata-sama's heir.

His breath felt short when he thought of Sakura, entrapped in those dark tunnels, lost to the First Flower. Alone. Supported by a stranger. The time for making petitions was almost past and though he'd spoken to his mother about Walking for Sakura, he'd never made mention of his desire to oyakata-sama. Perhaps he had wanted to preserve the illusion of normality that he'd enjoyed so much in Konoha. Maybe had been afraid of the certain death that would follow such a decisive action. Whatever his reason, he had found his resolve now.

Shiho embraced the child before him, swallowing back tears. "I have to go away for a little while," he whispered to her. "But I'll be back soon, so play with the other children. Can you do that for me, Sakura-chan?"

"Do you have to leave?" Sakura whined, darting another frightened glance toward the other children.

Rocking back on his heels, Shiho forced a smile onto his face. "Just for a while." Her anxiety didn't abate and he was reminded that Sakura had been bullied for most of her childhood. It wasn't a phenomena he could explain; Sakura was shy, sweet, and passive, none of which should have attracted the kind of bullying she'd experienced, which had amounted to almost total social isolation. At first, he'd worried that the behavior would promote an early budding, much like Haruno Michiko, but Sakura had never lost the innocence that made it painful to not interfere.

"Why?" Sakura demanded.

"So that I can stay with you for a long, long time, Sakura-chan," he replied.

She peered at him suspiciously through eyes of Haruno jade, but then she nodded. "A long, long time," she parroted. "Promise?"  
>"It's a forever kind of promise."<p>

When Sakura cautiously slid open the door, she found Ran-oba-san within, her head pillowed on crossed arms, shoulders shaking from the violence of her smothered tears.

Alarmed, she entered, asking, "What's wrong?"

Fierce eyes startled her, rimmed in red, accusatory in a way she was unaccustomed. But Ran-oba-san's voice was level when she spoke. "Nothing is _wrong_ child, this is simply the way things are. If you're looking for Shiho-kun, he will be-," her voice broke slightly, "indisposed for a while longer. Now, _please_, leave me in peace."

Confused by the disparity between her words and her tears, Sakura shuffled backwards out of the room and fled.

But everywhere in the compound, she only intruded on more scenes of the same as she searched for her parents, who hadn't been in the room when she'd awakened from her afternoon nap. The long shadows cast by the hanging lamps created sinister pools from whence monsters might spring and the house, though she knew it to be filled with other children, was filled with a somber near-silence.

"Kaa-san. Kaa-san!" she whispered into the quiet. Sakura shivered when her mother did not answer. Decided that the familiarity of the empty room was preferable to these strange halls, Sakura turned but found herself quickly at a loss.

Forced to either guess a direction at random or sit down in the middle of the hall and cry, Sakura chose to wonder. It was not courage that prompted her decision, but rather some animal instinct that said that this place was not a welcoming one. Stepping as lightly as she could, wiping her running nose on her sleeve, Sakura padded in sock feet through the maze-like halls, seeing nothing familiar.

Jumping at little noises, Sakura kept going, desperately hoping that an adult would notice her and take her back to her parents. _Where are you, kaa-san?  
><em> Just ahead, a door slid open and a tall figure stepped smoothly out into the hall. Sakura flinched backward, then crept closer. The man turned his head slightly and Sakura froze, trapped by a gaze that seemed flat and reptilian, as if the being that animated the body wasn't at all human. He was otherwise a perfect doppelganger of a human being; the man had a handsome face, and was lean beneath traditional clothing, his hair so dark a red it was almost a purple-black. But those eyes told a very different tale. This was not a man at all, her terrified imagination supplied, but some manner of youkai, here to devour her.

His voice was soft, pleasant, terrifying. "A little lost child. To whose family to you belong?"  
>"Haruno Katsuo is my father." Her voice trembled nearly as much as her body.<p>

Those flat eyes widened slightly, pupils dilating with interest. "Ah. It seems luck is with you tonight, child. You've arrived just in time."

"For what?"

With his hand, the man indicated she should enter the room. Sakura wanted nothing more than to run away, but she was certain this man could catch her without effort. So she scraped together what little courage she possessed. "Who are you?"

"Haruno Shiki."

Sakura bit her lip. It was an answer that wasn't an answer. But he was an adult and a member of the family, so she hesitantly entered the room he'd indicated.

The light was odd, illumination provided only by primitive bowls of oil with a single wick at the four corners of the room. A sharp scent pervaded the room and though the flickering light was uncertain, the tatami seemed discolored. As she stepped further into the room, she realized that not all the shadows upon the wall were caused by the lamps.

When she heard the door close behind her, a scream welled up in her throat.

"Be silent."  
>The order was quiet, but it seemed to resound through her body.<p>

"Haruno Katsuo's daughter...," Shiko ruminated aloud. "You fail to impress. Nevertheless, he is yours now, to do with as you like. I dislike polearms myself. Clumsy. Inelegant."

He seemed to be looking at something as he spoke and Sakura edged forward, to find herself staring at a weapon she had never before seen. White as sun-bleached bone from tip to counterweight, it was longer than Shiki was tall, the pole that the blade was mounted to a little over five foot in length. Rather than the narrow, straight blade of a naginata, this weapon had a curved edge on its sharpened side, the shape reminiscent but not so drastic as a crescent moon. On the blunt side of the blade, just where the blade met shaft, there was a spur from which a tassel of white hair had been hung. Between spur and tip, four rings had been threaded through the metal, if it was metal at all.

"It's a guan dao. A reclining moon blade. Who were you looking for tonight, Sakura?"

"Kaa-san. She wasn't there. I went to Ran-oba-chan's room, but she was crying. She said Shiho-nii-chan was..." she found she could not remember the difficult word Ran-oba-san had used, "Ran-oba-san said Shiho-nii-chan wasn't there. She was crying. I think something bad happened to Shiho-nii-chan," Sakura confided to the frightening man.

"Something bad?" Shiki asked with interest. "Yes. You might say something evil has happened to Shiho."

Sakura started, turning from the guan dao. "You know where Shiho-nii-chan is!" she accused.

"Of course. I am the head of this house. Nothing beneath this roof occurs without my command. Certainly not a ritual of this magnitude."  
>"Where is Shiho-nii-chan?" Sakura demanded.<p>

One brow rose. Then he glanced back at the guan dao. "There, on the floor. That weapon is your Shiho-nii-chan." His expression turned to objective calculation. "I truly hope that you can show me something interesting, Sakura."

A/N: This was edited after the publishing of the chapters, so if this is your first read-through, you might find the second chapter supplies you with information you've already read and seems in places redundant. Please have patience, as I am working through this story in the hope of regaining my inspiration for it. If this isn't your first read-through and you think this chapter has just become wordier, rather than being improved, please let me know.


	2. The Oyakatasama

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: This chapter was actually quite difficult to write. I'm not often around small children, so making Sakura's reactions convincing, at least to me, was difficult. If you find anything off, at least part of the blame lies with the fact that Sakura doesn't completely understand what death is. She understands more than the average five-year old, but as with a lot of children's reactions, she would normally take her cues in this situation from an adult. Or at, least, that was how it worked in my head.

You'll also notice that in this fic, I'm leaving the name of all the new jutsus untranslated. Mostly this is because I don't speak Japanese, so complex translation are a little outside my specialty and as I'm already stumbling through other aspects of the culture, I thought it would be better not to utterly butcher the language.

Chapter Two

-The Oyakata-sama-

Haruno Shiki stared down at the slight form of one of the heir candidates. The little girl was shaking and looked like she might burst into tears at any moment. _Good_, he thought to himself. It meant her parents had obeyed the edict and allowed her free reign with her emotions. It was always inconvenient when the foolish or incautious attempted to force the blooming of their kekkei genkai.

His green eyes drifted to the weapon he'd been standing watch over since the ceremony had ended. He wondered if Shiho had known that his wish would be granted so immediately when he had come to the head with his decision. Doubtful. The boy had probably wished to linger on a little longer, making last memories with his mother or some such nonsense.

"Your companion was the first of those forged this time," Shiki told the girl. "You should be honored that he chose you so readily."

Her candyfloss pink hair would doubtless darken with time and bloodshed. Because of the nature of the clan, it was necessary to continue to bring in outsiders in order to continue the bloodline, but it also brought about interesting physical quirks. Hair of such a peculiar color was only one of them, but her wide eyes were the Haruno jade.

That trembling lip firmed and the little girl glared at him. "What did you do to Shiho-nii-chan?" she spat.

Shiki's eyes narrowed. It was one matter to allow a child to indulge in emotion, another to indulge in ignorance. "It was a jutsu called Walking in the White Moon Garden. Your father is Katsuo, is he not? It seems he has been remiss in your education."

Extending a hand towards her, he was unsurprised when she scrambled away, sloshing oil from the containers as she stumbled on them. His sigh was barely a hiss of air between his lips. But then, upon reconsideration, he was pleased, because Sakura had thought to put the guan dao between them.

Tucking his hands into his sleeves in a visibly nonthreatening gesture, because it wasn't truly possible for the current head of the Haruno clan to look harmless, Shiki warned her, "Be careful not to spill the oil on the silk."

"You took Shiho-nii-chan away!"

_How very tedious_. "I do not deny my part. However, what is important now is the part you must play."

"Why do I have to listen to a bad guy like you?" Sometimes he forgot how very young some of these children were when they were brought to him.

Calling upon the chakra that normally lay dormant at the crown of his head, Shiki could feel his eyes dilating. In the green iris a black spike emerged from the pupil and then it split, green rushing in to fill the black until only the outline of a petal remained, its shape like a lotus'. Another bloomed and then another, until his pupil was ringed by the petals. It was dim enough in the room he wasn't certain that Sakura could see what he was doing, but she certainly felt it. Straightening, she met his eyes.

The Haruno clan kekkei genkai was not a doujutsu. Rather, it was simply an outward manifestation of an internal change, the number of petals reflecting how deeply lost its user was. When it was in full bloom like Shiki's, in the state called the Thousand Generation Flower, only he could return to himself without the aid of a branch family member. If the branch family's strongest trait was 'attachment,' then the attribute of the main family was 'separation.' Many times he had declared that those lost clan members would be kept in the full bloom state, subject to the will of the oyakata-sama.

No, it wasn't the kekkei genkai itself that Sakura was reacting to, but the fluid waves of killing intent that flowed from the older man, pressing down on her until she thought her heart might stop. "I am Haruno Shiki. In this house, in this world, so long as you bear the name Haruno, my will should be regarded as absolute. Do you understand, child?"

He knew full well that she couldn't move, but he did not relent. "Do you understand?" He intensified his killing intent until it had become a physical presence in the air, nearly thick enough to drink. Or choke on, if you were weak. Outside the room he could feel some of the more sensitive clan member's chakra flaring, but he kept the intent so tightly directed that the rest of the compound continued undisturbed in their daily tasks.

"Answer me." Shiki did not raise his voice as he demanded it of her.

For a moment more the girl was frozen and he began to speculate that she had not inherited that most vital trait, but then something moved behind her eyes. "You took Shiho-nii-san and now he's gone!" she howled.

"You also killed young Shiho," Shiki accused levelly. "By the simple fact of your existence you ensured that Shiho would choose to die, instead of waiting for death to choose him."

"That's not true!"

"Oh?" He took a step forward. "Then will you break your promise? 'Together forever,' was that not the bond you promised him?"

That made her falter. "But Shiho-nii-chan is gone. He left, even though he promised."

"He did no such thing. He's waiting, right in front of you."

Sakura looked down at the guan dao.

"If you continue to hesitate, I will take him from you and grant him to someone more deserving."

The words hung between them in the air. He saw the exact moment that the girl understood him, because she leaped forward, covering the bladed weapon with her body.

"Don't touch him," she snarled, her own killing intent clumsy and humorous when compared to his, but there just the same.

His killing intent abruptly ceased, startling Sakura so much she almost collapsed on top of the guan dao. "Very good, Sakura-chan. This is one of the most important lessons you will ever learn, so listen well. No matter what other bonds you may make in your life, you must _never_ allow anyone to separate you from Shiho."

Resentment was clear in the child's gaze and her lips were set in a mulish line.

Shiki's eyes narrowed. It was clear that the girl would not willingly listen while still so upset. "Do you know the nature of the branch clan jutsu? Shiho's mortal shell has perished and been reborn, but his soul is only sleeping."

"Sleeping?"

"Yes."

Large jade eyes looked at him with clear intelligence, but she didn't retreat from her position. "How do I wake him up?"

"You will need to blood him," Shiki explained.

When no comprehension dawned in those wide eyes, he simply expedited the process. Moving faster than her untrained eyes could follow, he had her hand captured in his before she could even cry out. Drawing it downward in a strangely gentle gesture, he ran her fingers along the edge of the guan dao's blade. It was almost preternaturally sharp and blood soon began to pour freely, tiny crimson droplets coming down like rain on the silver-white surface. And then, like a calligraphy master guiding a pupil's hand, he traced the characters for Shiho's name with her bleeding fingers.

Staring down at the forming characters as if entranced, Sakura read, "Haruno Shiho."

Like steam from water, a mist seemed to be drawn from the blade, curling first in faint wisps that gathered to become a great cloud that began to take form. And then there was Shiho, smiling gently down at Sakura.

Tears that had been absent until that moment began to trail down Sakura's cheeks.

Shiho was immediately by her side, trying to comfort her. "Hush, hush," he murmured, then he attempted to stroke her back in a soothing gesture. Shiki watched his eyes widen when his hand passed through her skin, insubstantial as smoke, the direct contact making it just as formless. It only reformed when he retracted his hand and Shiho brought them both before his face, staring at them like he'd never seen them before. Sakura looked at him with confusion.

"You are only a spirit," Shiki explained evenly. "Only your body can interact with the physical world."

Shiho's gaze jerked to him and it was much less gentle than when he'd looked at Sakura. "Oyakata-sama," he addressed him, bowing. "This means the ceremony is completed, does it not?"

"For your part. Sakura-chan's completion lies further in the future, when her kekkei genkai is made to bloom. I personally confirmed her potential. Though you might wish to explain to her what the First Flower of the Spring means, before I entrust her to a sensei."

Shiho bowed again. "I will see to it, oyakata-sama."

Turning his eyes dismissively from the ghost of the young branch member, he looked at the girl again. It was unlikely, in his mind, that she would win the competition, but all fifteen of the heirs nominated this round would receive treatment intent on equalizing their skill levels for the fights. It was a remarkably large group, but they were currently living in a time of peace, which always caused the numbers of the family to swell between meetings.

"Sakura-chan, this is the only bond in your life that you cannot break." Reaching into his sleeve, Shiki produced a narrow knife. Dangling it with seeming carelessness, he said, "Kagami, if you will make yourself known."

Both Sakura and Shiho watched as a cloudy figure manifested itself. It was a woman with the kind of mature beauty that made her of indeterminate age, though her scanty clothing and careless posture betrayed a brazen youthfulness. She was sitting with one leg crossed over the other at about the level of Shiki's shoulder. It was not a ladylike crossing of the ankles either, but rather one ankle thrown over her knee, and she was leaning back against some surface they could not see.

The collar of her kimono was pulled open to rest low on her shoulders, her cleavage exposed to almost an indecent level, which made the modest way her full sleeves hid her hands quite ironic. The skirts of the kimono had been shortened to knee length, then slit up the side until very high on her thigh. There was almost a full inch from the top of the slit to where her fishnet stockings began.

"So this is the first of the new brats, eh?" she growled in what was quite possibly the most sensual contralto Shiki had ever heard.

"Indeed."

"Indeed," Kagami mocked. "Tch, you sound so old when you talk like that Shiki."

Shiki ignored her taunt. He had always spoken like this and would continue to in the future. Kagami had been outrageous in life and a death of the body had not stopped that.

Not that Kagami expected him to respond, her attention turning easily to the pair before them. Sheathed in his sleeve, her consciousness slept, she having little interest in most of the clan's affairs except when it came to her use. In their long partnership she had tasted the blood of many family members.

One of Kagami's brows rose. "Don't you think you're a little big for her, boy?"

The insinuation was missed by none except Sakura. Shiho scowled but did not say anything.

Kagami cocked her head in a way she knew enhanced the delicate line of her neck, though her kunoichi skills served little enough purpose nowadays. Shiki was too used to her to pay it any mind and it looked like ice water had run in the boy's veins.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Shiho," he replied evenly.

Kagami snorted. "Isn't that a girl's name?"

"It is my name."

Looking more closely, Kagami examined both his spirit and body with curiosity. She hadn't really been kidding when she'd asked her earlier question. His body had turned into a halberd kind of weapon she wasn't all that familiar with, because too often in the ninja profession big simply meant slow. It was pretty, in its way, with the elegant half moon curve of the front of the blade, and the flame-like edge of the back, with a spur that she supposed served as some sort of counterweight. He was decorative too, with a tassel hanging from that spur and other rings threaded through holes in the blade.

She sneered internally. He was going to make noise, unless that little girl learned to wield him well. Of course, that was provided that one could be stealthy in the first place with a weapon taller than most grown men.

And he was a grown man indeed. Soft, compared to Shiki, but they all were. His kimono was flowing and layered like some Heien era prince, but she also detected some Chinese influence, which might explain some of the flamboyancy. His hair had been partially twisted up in the back in the traditional topknot style and secured with some decorative ornament.

Kagami snorted again. The boy looked like some sort of guardian deity. That could change over time, of course, as how he thought of himself changed, but for now it looked like they had a real winner of a pair.

"But really, how _is_ she supposed to use that whale of a weapon in the matches?" Kagami asked Shiki.

Shiki looked unperturbed. Pretentious bastard. But cunning, even when he'd been newly awoken to the First Flower of Spring. Which was how he'd killed all seven of the children that had been competing against him as the heir.

Her own mother had drugged her in order to subdue Kagami for the ceremony that had made him her partner. So, when she'd awoken after being liberally doused in Shiki's blood, she hadn't been nearly as happy about the match as this Shiho seemed to have been. For one, while she'd been raised with the expectation she'd die for her clan, she'd met Shiki before the jutsu and had hated the cold-blooded little boy. Oh, his parents had obeyed the dictate, but Shiki was a natural.

Half-souled little psychopath that he was.

It was the children like him that made clear the true nature of the main house. While the branch members were born with incomplete bodies, the main house's deficit was in their very souls. Easily obsessed, compulsive, and sometimes neurotic, but intelligent. Which made them dangerous, because without a branch member's soul to sleep in that empty space, something else could develop there instead.

The little things that people put away in order to live within society crept in, until eventually they suffered from a complete breakdown. And when a main house member broke, they were fearsome monsters, often targeting the objects of their obsession in dangerous games.

Even the most dangerous criminals in ninja society had some sort of bond they were unwilling to break, even if it was only a fond memory of family that caused them to spare a victim with a passing resemblance to that loved one. If a Haruno was allowed to bloom, they lost that most important human capacity.

This girl with the wide forehead might look innocent as the dawn, but Kagami knew that she probably already displayed some of the Haruno traits, or would begin to soon. Shiki, when she'd come to him, had already made that destructive attachment to a boy he'd considered his intellectual rival. The boy had lived, primarily because Kagami filled that empty abyss when the other half of his soul was supposed to be, or at least she flattered herself to think so. With Shiki he could have simply gotten bored.

She, in all honesty, preferred the rivalry bond to the romantic bond when the main branch children were picking out their particular brand of crazy. Because those always took scary to another level. Severing the rivalry bond was easy-they typically just killed them. But those children, and it seemed especially prevalent in the girls, who were in that other situation? They tended to save that victim for last, as if it was a special kind of regard. And on the way, they began to snuff out their object of affection's other bonds, until often the unfortunate one was begging them to end it all. They never refused. And those children could never be retrieved.

There were several levels to the Haruno clan kekkei genkai, like most bloodline traits. Budding, the state before the petals appeared in the eyes, made a Haruno insensible to fear. The First Flower broke their emotional attachments and cleared their eyes. The Dance of the Falling Petals severed their ability to differentiate between good and evil and lightened their feet. And the Thousand Generation Flower turned their will into a weapon, their killing intent capable of not only paralyzing an opponent, but striking them dead with their own fear.

Shiki was all but telekinetic with the freaking ability, but Shiki was special. She'd been waiting for the last thirty-seven years for him to kill them all in their sleep, but he'd refrained, though kami knew why.

"Kagami?" She tilted her head indolently toward Shiki when she realized he was speaking to her.

"Yeah?"  
>Shiki sighed. "Sakura-chan will not be able to wield Shiho, so I will allow her to take one kunai with her into the tunnels. Shiho, of course, will be left in my care for the duration of the match."<p>

"But Shiki, that's dangerous!" Kagami protested, startled. The children would be newly bloomed and shouldn't really be separated from their weapons for some time, until the bond deepened. Shiki might tell the new candidates that the bond couldn't be broken, but he'd never seen the situation from a branch member's point of view. Physical contact was important to the little psychopaths. It kept them more or less in their right mind, where they could use the kekkei genkai and come back from it.

"I hope you know what you're doing," she growled when it became obvious Shiki wasn't going to change his mind.

The corner of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. Kagami shivered with pleasure as he flicked her body between his fingers with the dexterity of a born assassin. Their spirits might not be able to interact with the physical world, but the weapons they'd become were still attached to their souls.

He glanced down once more at the little pink-haired girl, who was still bleeding onto the hulking great weapon that was now hers. "I think this is enough. Goodbye, Sakura-chan."

As he walked out the door, Kagami noticed he kept her in his hand and guessed they would soon be witnessing the new ceremony.

"Retrieve Shiho's mother and bring her to the room," he commanded the clan member to flanked the door.

"And the girl's parents?"

"Don't bother. I'm going to have a talk with them myself."

At least, Ran consoled herself, she was a full-blooded clan member, even if she was from a branch line. That meant she could see the spirit of her Shiho as he looked at her with a kind of resigned sadness.

"I'm sorry," Shiho whispered. "I wanted to say goodbye."

Ran gathered herself. This was no one's fault. It was only the will of the clan. And, unlike so many mothers, Shiho would always be near. Even if she resented her now, she knew Sakura was the most timid and good-natured child she'd met in a long time. "Why would you say goodbye?" she asked, her voice still coming out forced. "Are you going somewhere? Planning to run away to Suna again?"

That had always been his destination when he'd run away from home as a child. Picking Suna of all places had made her worry that the main line instability of the mind hadn't totally passed her son over, but it had made her laugh.

And it still made Shiho smile. In that moment, she felt blessed to have carried him, nursed him, and watched him grow all those years, even if she was obligated to give him away now. That was one advantage she had over Chouko. Her child's blood would never make him a monster and there was no jutsu in the world that could break his spirit. She was glad that none of the weapons could remember their deaths.

"Ran-oba-chan," Sakura said mournfully, "I'm sorry."

"And what are you sorry about?"

"Shiki-dono said it was my fault."

Shiho was looking at her hopefully, but Ran wouldn't correct her. "Yes. So what do you intend to do about it?"  
>Sakura looked away.<p>

"That's what I thought. Did you know, Sakura-chan, that when you die, Shiho will die too?"

Wide jade eyes proclaimed the little girl's alarm.

Ran bent her knees so she could look her in the eye. "If you don't become the heir, Shiho will die, for real this time."

"Mother!" Shiho protested.

"Shiho will die," Ran continued, "and this time it won't just be a little bit your fault like this time. It will be _all your fault_."

"Mother!"

"Be silent Shiho. I'm speaking to Sakura," she reprimanded her son without ever breaking eye contact. "Sakura, if you allow my son to die, I will hate you forever. Unlike the branch clan, the main house is long-lived. I want you to live so that my son can live."

"Ran-oba-chan will hate me?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. And I will hate the mother that bore you and the father who contributed his seed. I will ask their lives from the clan head as payment for my son's life."

Shiho was watching with silent horror at the ruthlessness of his mother.

"It's only fair, Sakura. So, I need you to do something for me."

"What?" The girl's voice trembled.

Ran's eyes were hard and unforgiving. "Become the heir."

A/N: There might be some similarities between the Haruno kekkei genkai in this story and Sakura's breakdown in Five Kingdoms, but there is a reason for that. I am trying to keep Sakura as in-canon as possible. Which means working with her attributes, instead of inventing some strange kekkei genkai out of the blue (that honor belongs to the branch family). And really, the most distinctive feature of Sakura is Inner-Sakura. In Five Kingdoms I worked with the idea of different souls. In First Flower I theorized that perhaps her soul was incomplete to begin with.

I chose to have the 'change' for the kekkei genkai appear in the eyes because it seems to be a trend in the series. Even though that are clearly not doujutsu, like Naruto or Gaara's jinchuuriki transformation, are signaled by a change in the appearance of their eyes, among other things. And, I finally invented a reason for Sakura's unhealthy obsession with Sasuke in the original.


	3. Young Flower in the Shade

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: I don't know if you'll be disappointed or not, but I won't actually be subjecting you to a tournament style chapter with children doing the shinobi equivalent of cage fighting. I think that's a little outside my chosen rating. And probably illegal or something.

Chapter Three

-Young Flower in the Shade-

Haruno Tsubasa looked down at his newest charge. And the enormous polearm that she'd determinedly dragged to practice with her. The guan dao probably weighed at least as much as she did. Luckily it hadn't rained for a while, so the tail end of the haft didn't dig a furrow as she went. And she was a tiny little thing too, all wide green eyes and eager smile.

Knowing he couldn't put it off any longer, he leaped down from his hiding place. She stood from where she'd been sitting on the grass and her expression grew more serious as she bowed. "I'm Haruno Sakura. I'm in your care."

They were quite some distance from the compound, hopefully far enough away for the practice of the other candidates to not interfere with their own training. Tsubasa only had a month and a half to make this little pink ball of fluff into a capable enough killer to have a chance in the brutal elimination style fighting of the final week. The candidates were more or less released like rats into the underground tunnels that ran beneath the compound. The one that came out alive won, as simple as that. After that would be a ceremony to recognize the new heir and then they would depart from the massacre left behind, not to meet again for another fifteen years.

He'd been only six when he'd attended the first gathering, but it was still etched on his memory. Besides the business of selecting the heir, other members of the main house were assessed for their potential to develop the kekkei genkai. He'd been passed over back then, but his bloodline had awoken with a vengeance later, prompting action on the part of the oyakata-sama.

For every member of the main house who displayed such a tendency, a member of the branch house had to die. Yin and yang, light and dark, dead and alive. The branches of the clan needed each other, true, but the branch families benefitted far less than the main family. But, Tsubasa supposed, that was what made it a clan.

Tsubasa was a main house member and a talented ninja in his own right from Iwa. He was not, however, a miracle worker. "I'm Tsubasa." He sighed. "It'll be a pleasure working with you."

Neither the girl nor her partner, who had materialized behind her, looked entirely convinced of his enthusiasm.

"That guan dao's name is Shiho, right?" Sakura nodded. "What in the world was he thinking?" he asked dryly.

"We cannot choose our forms," Shiho defended himself irritably.

Tsubasa rolled his eyes. "So you say." A lightning quick movement left a sai quivering in the dirt in front of Sakura's feet. Shiho had appeared protectively in front of her, forgetting for a moment his insubstantial form. But it had been to make a point, not to harm her.

"That's Umeko. I'm sure she's pleased to meet you too." With a giggle, a childish form appeared, but she wore a hood across her bobbed hair like a bride. The girl probably wasn't even six.

Shiho looked stricken. "They took her so young..."

"Yeah, well, when the disease strikes, it strikes," Tsubasa said gruffly. "Her parents had already lost her twin to it. That's why oyakata-sama asked me to train you. I don't use Umeko-chan in battle."

"So you use taijutsu?" Shiho asked curiously.

"Not if I can help it," Tsubasa admitted, running a hand through shaggy brunette hair that had a deep red wash, but wasn't a solid color like Sakura's or Shiki's. "If you hadn't noticed, a lot of our clan jutsu is weapons based. Then we usually use genjutsu or ninjutsu. Taijutsu's a distant third on that list. But you had to go and be a big-ass halberd..." Tsubasa's voice trailed off.

"Well, with any luck, she'll live to grow into you." Tsubasa said cheerfully.

Chouko looked in on her daughter, who was curled around the weapon that Ran's son had become. She didn't like her daughter sleeping with such a dangerous object, but Katsuo had insisted. She couldn't see it in the soft light that spilled from behind her, but she remembered how bruised and worn her daughter had looked when that Iwa-nin had brought her back.

Her hand clenched into a fist. This entire practice was barbaric, but even Ran, whose son had died, had accepted it as the will of the clan. But she had been born into this ugly place. Maybe she didn't even understand how wrong it was.

It was all the fault of _that man_. The one her husband called oyakata-sama and pandered to so shamelessly. When he'd walked into their rooms that night, Chouko had known the deepest terror of her life. And he'd only smiled.

But, maybe, even if Ran or Katsuo didn't understand, someone else would. Someone also from the outside.

There were many ways to be a prodigy in this world. Some people were born with perfect pitch, others could anticipate the next two hundred moves of an opponent on a shouji board. Sakura had been born with absolute chakra control. And it was utterly useless, Tsubasa thought.

It didn't matter how much control the girl had, she didn't have enough chakra for proper elemental ninjutsu. It wasn't even that she was particulary weak, but just that she was so damn young. And unless she suddenly developed some outrageous skill to utilize Shiho's jounin-level chakra, she wasn't suddenly going to have enough to help her in her matches.

Genjutsu, as useful as it was against enemy ninja, didn't work well against Harunos. The unique way their psyche was constructed seemed to serve as something of a natural defense.

Shiki-dono had declared that she would be allowed to carry a single kunai in the tunnels. Much good that did them. With only a little over a month, he wouldn't be able to teach her skills of any complexity with the weapon, which was primarily meant as a projectile. If it came down to hand-to-hand there were many weapons more suitable, but he would teach her all he could. As her sensei, it was his duty to prepare her as well as possible for the hellhole those caverns would become.

So, he'd gone down the path of a desperate man. "Most of your opponents won't pass the budding stage of their kekkei genkai," he told her grimly. "It's too soon after the bonding, especially for those who were already gennin." The ceremonies of that would provide them with their weapons would not occur until the youngest candidates had been put through intensive training in order to level out, as much as possible, the playing field. "And usually, it just takes time to develop a kekkei genkai, just like any other skill. Of course, what we're talking about in these tunnels has the possibility to really mess with your mind, so there's always those few that snap and the Thousand Generation Flower blooms. It's pretty rare in the rest of the main house, but there's something about the way the death match that draws it out."

Sakura was watching him carefully, quietly absorbing his every word. In the short time he'd been with her Tsubasa had noted a voracious appetite for knowledge. But again, it was all a waste if he couldn't teach her enough to survive. "There is a skill that isn't used particularly often in ninja battles," he went on, "but I think it will be useful enough to us, at least in the first battles."

He'd been pacing while he was talking, but Tsubasa turned suddenly to where Sakura was sitting. "Why are you resting? Keeping running laps."

As Sakura obediently rose, he also took a moment to admire her dedication. Many children were forced into these battles for the ambition of their parents. Those same children usually lost, without a suitable reason to fight their opponent. He wondered what is was that spurred Sakura on, but then shook the thought away.

"Have you met the oyakata-sama?" he asked as she circled the clearing they were practicing in today.

Saving her breath, Sakura nodded.

"And what did you think of him?"  
>She needed only a one word answer. "Scary."<p>

_Scary as hell_, Tsubasa amended in his head, but he didn't say it aloud."Shiki-dono is a master of forcing down his opponents without lifting a single finger. Do you know how he does it? He can radiate killing intent with enough intensity that his opponent can barely breathe, let only move. When Shiki-dono goes into battle, his opponents lose before the first kunais are ever exchanged."  
>"Some of that is the Thousand Generation Flower. But a lot of it is just Shiki-dono." Tsubasa took a deep breath. "Sakura-chan, I'm going to teach you everything about killing intent."<p>

On the sidelines, where he'd been regulated, Shiho watched in frustrated silence. He'd died in order to protect Sakura, but she was even more vulnerable now than she'd been before. Part of him didn't want for Sakura to defile that bright, innocent soul with the blood of her kin. But a more selfish part wanted her to survive, at any cost.

Sakura was often confused in her lessons. She _liked _Tsubasa-sensei, even when he was being scary. So when he'd tried to teach her about killing intent, she didn't know how she could. She didn't _want_ Tsubasa-sensei dead.

But she also remembered Ran-oba-chan's words. If she didn't become the heir, Shiho would die and Ran-oba-chan would hate her more than she already did. Sakura wouldn't let anyone take away her Shiho-nii-chan.

As she ever so carefully made another round around the lip of the wide clay bowl filled with sand, which Tsubasa-sensei said would improve her balance as well as teaching her to step lightly as he slowly removed the sand each day, Sakura firmed up her resolution.

This time, instead of picturing Tsubasa-sensei, she pictured cousin Michiko. She wasn't half so nice, so Sakura didn't feel as bad. She was one of the other candidates. But, even though she could feel outrage against the way the older girl treated her, she didn't think that was what Tsubasa-sensei wanted.

Holding her hands out when she suddenly wavered, she asked, "Tsubasa-sensei, what's it like to kill someone?"

Tsubasa-sensei looked startled when she chanced to glance up. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "it all depends on who it is, I suppose. If they were once your comrade, sometimes you feel guilty. But if they're an enemy, I guess it's kind of exciting, if you meet them in battle first. Sometimes you don't feel much of anything in particular. That's for a lot of assassinations. Mostly they're just a description and a paycheck. That's all. To you, as a shinobi," he said slowly, "they're not really people. They're just objects."

"Maybe that's how you need to think of them, Sakura-chan." He moved to stand in front of her and she stepped off the bowl to give him her full attention. "Those other brats, when you look at them from now on, tell yourself this. 'This is not a person. This is an obstacle. It has no feelings. It has no family. This is an obstacle. It's standing in my way.' Can you remember all that?"

"This is not a person," Sakura recited. "This is an obstacle. It has no feelings. It has no family. This is an obstacle. It's standing in my way." _Shiho-nii-chan will die._ This time, when she imagined Michiko's face, she felt a shiver of something cold sweep over her scalp, the it flared outward.

"That's it," Tsubasa-sensei said softly. "That's how it is. Now, focus on projecting it outward. If you can do it well enough, you'll smother their own intent."

Sakura stepped back onto the rim of the bowl. "This is not a person," she recited in a sing-song voice. "This is an obstacle."

Shiho was worried about Chouko-san. She'd been acting strangely lately, but Sakura-chan was too tired to notice and Katsuo-san was busy with clan affairs. Though Shiki-dono and his assistants took care of most things, such as granting marriages and such, there were still other matters that needed done. Deaths, marriages, and births were confirmed and the records all rechecked. Copies of scrolls were made as family members traded techniques or younger members needed instruction from the family archives. Investigations and inquiries were made about lines that had fallen silent.

Chouko-san had thrown a fit just this morning when a few of the clan women talented with sewing had produced narrow-legged hakamas and a matching dark top in a charcoal black for Sakura's use.

She'd known she was marrying into a shinobi clan, even if Katsuo-san had retired after his marriage. And yes, what the clan did would be considered reprehensible by many raised in his home village, but _it was necessary. _If she would only bother to look back into their history and even their present, she would understand why the branch family members participated in the Walking in the White Moon Garden technique.

Some even volunteered, because it guaranteed them a life many wouldn't otherwise have. An isolated life, yes, but anyone with enough Haruno blood could see and interact with the dead branch members and the branch members, if their bodies were brought close enough together like they were in the compound, could interact with each other. But he didn't even think that Chouko-san even knew their spirits were conscious-she talked about him like a weapon, not as the person he had been.

Chouko-san's behavior angered him, especially when Sakura-chan was trying so hard. Had she even tried to understand the clan?

Tsubasa was worried. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but was it really okay for such a small child to learn to radiate killing intent with concentration as to occasionally give even him pause?

Shaking off his misgivings, because they had only days left, he put Sakura-chan through her paces, evaluating how well she'd learned the techniques he'd tried to teach her.

"Remember," he cautioned her as he easily parried another attack with her kunai. "Do not throw the kunai. It is your only weapon and you do not throw your only weapon away."

"Hai, Tsubasa-sensei!"

"If you manage to stun them with your killing intent, don't hesitate but run for them as fast as you can, just in case they activate the kekkei genkai. Remember, go for the eyes first. You don't have anyone against you good enough to fight you blinded and you might not be as fast at them."

"Hai, Tsubasa-sensei!"

"And it doesn't matter if the boys are cute, they still have to go."

"Ha-. Tsubasa-sensei!"

Tsubasa laughed.

Chouko took her daughter's face in her hands. "Sakura-chan..." she said softly. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright." Wiping warm tears from her own face, she repeated her words. "Don't worry, everything will be okay."

Even though she was so young, Sakura-chan's eyes narrowed with a strange kind of understanding. Her small hands came up to wipe a tear away. "It's alright, oka-san."

Chouko gave a strangled kind of laugh. In this situation, it was her daughter trying to comfort her. Had she actually been so useless all this time? No more. _This time_, she thought as she gently brushed back the bangs hanging into her daughters eyes, _I won't let them hurt you, Sakura-chan. Oka-san will protect you. _

Sakura-chan shifted under her ministrations. "I have go now, ka-san."

"I know," Chouko said. _I won't let you be in that place long. _"See you soon, Sakura-chan."

"Bye, oka-san," Sakura-chan replied solemnly.

Shiki was not surprised when the outsiders staged an uprising. He was not even particularly surprised when some of the clan members defected. The ones who were going to be killed were, after all, beloved husbands and wives. It would make sense to protect them, if they could.

He was, however, slightly surprised to find they'd also contracted high level shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Mist.

_And they call us barbarians_, he thought darkly as he passed through another blood spattered hallway. They dared to spill the blood of his clan within their own halls. "All of them will die for this," he murmured to no one in particular. And he allowed his kekkei genkai to bloom, clearing his attachment to the bodies now lying still and silent, breaking his sympathy for those who'd only joined in this tawdry little rebellion because of someone they'd loved.

And then he smiled. The killer that had been called the 'Wind Among the Flowers' for his accuracy, speed, and delicacy set about cleaning his house.

Chouko knelt on her knees, hands bound behind her back. She'd been positioned so she could see the entrance to the tunnels, the entrance through which the new heir would emerge.

"Soon now," the monster beside her said. He paid no mind to her sobs. "Kagami can sense when the souls of the branch members leave, even down in the tunnels. She says there are only two left now."

Their rebellion had been put down with a ruthlessness that horrified her. Strange flowers blooming in their eyes, clan members they'd thought might be sympathetic to their cause once the rebellion started cut down bosom friends without hesitation. Only the outsiders and the few parents of heir candidates that had joined them had been left alive, restrained, and brought to the room deep in the compound where the family normally gathered once the match was well under way.

Blood-spattered clan members ringed the room, faces ranging from impassive to outraged. None seemed to cry for those they'd lost. _What kind of monsters are they?_

"I wonder," that man said and the murmuring of the clan died down, "shall we hold the spouses of those who participated in this little display of foolhardiness culpable?"

He seemed to be listening to someone, but none of the family was speaking.

"They did, however, choose to marry them."

Another silence.

"You make a convincing point." Shiki glanced down at Chouko. "You should be grateful, you foolish woman. I've decided to spare those who did nothing worse than love weak people, though kami knows that in itself should be a sin. However," and he raised his voice, "for an as of yet undetermined period, they will not be allowed to leave this compound. What is destroyed must be repaired, even if it takes your entire lives to right it."

"Ah," he said, turning his attention back to the tunnels, "they're coming."

Even Chouko could feel it. A new monster was coming up those shadowed stairs, its intent radiating before it.

"You did not understand the harmony of the clan, Chouko-san," the monster told her. "But it looks like your offspring does."

A fresh sob caught in her throat. Because standing there, liberally doused with the blood of other children, was a creature that had been her daughter. Unnervingly calm, with those damnable petals in her eyes, it spoke. "Shiki-dono, I am the last one," as if she were only the straggler checking in on a school field trip. That ugly green gaze transferred to Chouko and she flinched. "Why is my mother bound?" It was said without any particular inflection.

"I think that explanation can wait a moment. Ran-san, if you would," and he motioned to someone in the crowd. Shiho's mother emerged, the bladed weapon cradled in her arms as gently as if it was still her child. "Sakura-chan, you shouldn't let go of Shiho for a while."

Raising her hands, the child accepted the too-large weapon. For a moment, she only stared at it, but then animation began to filter back into her eyes and she twined her arms around it. "Shiho-nii-chan..." Tears began to clear tracks in the blood spattered on her cheeks.

"Sakura-chan," Shiki said, speaking more softly than she would have guessed him capable of, "your mother and these other people have done a very bad thing."

Rubbing at the corner of her eye and almost dropping her heavy weapon, Sakura hiccupped and asked, "What bad thing?"

"They killed members of the clan."

Sakura's head jerked towards Chouko. "Why, oka-san?" she asked.

"Because what you're doing is wrong!" Chouko shouted back at her. "If only you could see yourself Sakura! You're covered in blood! Children's blood."

Ashamed, Sakura turned her face away. However, Shiki stepped in front of Chouko.

His voice was softly pleasant. "Chouko-san, you will not abuse my heir. For the children who died here this day, you and your compatriots will only be exiled from the clan and not executed. However, in the future, if some clan member happened to catch sight of you, I will not be held responsible. So I would recommend that you disappear from our sight, forever."

One of the other outsiders gasped. "But there are members of the Haruno clan in every village!" he protested.

"Not in every village. I'm certain there's some little farming hamlet out there where you can quite comfortably live out the rest of your life. Put the period were you lived within the graces of the Haruno clan out of your minds. Start anew and forget who you once were." Shiki's dark eyes met Chouko's and for a moment she watched petal upon petal bloom among the green. "Nothing productive will come from remembering the past."

"And Sakura?" she forced past lips gone numb.

"Sakura is mine." He motioned with his hand for her daughter to come forward. Sakura's steps were hesitant and she hugged the weapon tighter, even though one end dragged on the ground. Chouko's heart clenched.

"What are you going to do with oka-san?" Sakura asked Shiki miserably.

"She will be sent away with the rest. Though, from what I understand, everything that happened today was her idea. Every death, with the exception of those now laying in the tunnels, can be laid at hands."

Wide jade eyes were like an accusation.

"I did it to save you from all this!" Chouko shouted.

"And how did you intend to save her from herself?" Shiki asked without the slightest hint of curiosity.

"She already has that weapon. Isn't that all she needs?" Chouko snarled.

"All she needs, perhaps. But what of the children that would come after her?"

Chouko stared at him, uncomprehending. Ran stepped forward.

"If you destroyed the clan and scattered our ashes to the winds, who would be there for the children she might bear? Who will be there for the Walking in the White Moon Garden technique? There were main house lines that sent their apologies and could not gather this year, some because their children were too young. Where is the branch clan to support them?"

Ran was growing visibly angrier as she continued. "And would you condemn the branch clan to the meager years offered us? Or would you allow us the courtesy of dying with honor at the hands of the clan? You never bothered to learn of the clan. What right do you have to judge it?"

"That's enough, Ran-san," Shiki said. Shaking with fury, Ran offered only a curt bow before she stalked away. "I don't think we owe you any sort of explanation, Chouko-san. In fact, I think it would be best for everyone if our time together came to an end."

Shiki bent at the waist and whispered something in her daughter's ear. Sakura looked stricken by what he was saying, but the man's expression was opaque as he rose. "Sakura, this woman is no longer your mother. From this moment, she is dead to you."

Her bottom lip trembled, but she nodded and Chouko's heart broke.

"Shiho-nii-chan died for me. I have to live for him." Sakura started crying harder, her small shoulders shaking. "Goodbye. Goodbye, Chouko-san," she said the last word softly.

Shiki clapped softly and Chouko felt her shoulders seized from behind.

A/N: I thought about writing more, perhaps having Sakura meet the children she has to fight, but I do want to get back to Konoha eventually. And, really, it would probably be OC overkill. However, if you'd like to see some short stories of Sakura and the clan and enough people tell me that in a review, I'll consider adding them in.

So, next chapter we finally return to Konoha, and the tone of the story lightens a bit. Look forward to it!


	4. Young Flower in the Sun

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, there would also be heroines instead of just heroes.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I'm really interested in the array of responses I've been getting, especially about the OC characters. In this chapter we have sudden time progressions between each of the POV breaks, because I'm interested in getting Sakura to gennin and out of the Academy as soon as possible. That said, here's the newest chapter of The First Flower of Spring!

Chapter Four

-Young Flower in the Sun-

_A life without conflict is boring. A life without struggle is pointless._ -Haruno Shiki

_Have you ever struggled at anything? _–Haruno Kagami

-X-X-X-

When Sakura came home to Konoha, it was as an orphan. Both her mother and father were still alive, but it was unlikely she would ever see either of them again. Sakura felt very little about that, as if they were pleasant strangers she'd once lived with. Before Shiki-dono had sent her away, he'd forced her back into the First Flower state. While the kekkei genkai was active, it broke the user's emotional connections to the people around them, but it was possible to make those fractures permanent. If Sakura were to come upon her parents now, she would have to start all over. It had made Shiki smile fractionally. "You might call us the masters of _letting go_," he'd told the girl as flowers bloomed in her eyes.

Haruno Chouko, Haruno Katsuo, and Haruno Shiho were reported to have died in an accident while traveling. Sakura left the home she'd lived in for her first five years and moved next door to Ran-oba-san's, where she was given Shiho-nii-chan's old room. Ran-oba-san had looked unhappy when she surveyed the neatly organized but slightly cluttered room, but she told Sakura that everything that had been Shiho's was her's now.

Only days later Sakura was enrolled in the Academy where she quickly excelled with Shiho-nii-chan's help. The only subject in which Sakura consistently underperformed was practical sparring—Sakura would rather face her instructor's disappointment any day than to go against Shiki-dono. "Your classmates are fragile. Do not fight them seriously," he'd instructed her idly when he appeared in Konoha to train her before disappearing again. As the years passed, she grew to think of him as more a force of nature than a person and regarded his edicts with all the seriousness of a revelation from a kami.

Sakura didn't make many friends in the Academy. The other children still bullied her, but that wasn't really the reason, as there were others in her classes just as isolated as she. Sakura always ran home as quick as her feet could carry her to Shiho-nii-chan.

"Most days I feel more like I'm disabled than dead," he remarked sardonically. The guan dao that his soul was anchored to spent the time she was away from home in the central living area, where he spent most of his time watching his mother bake. It was the most time they'd had together since Shiho had graduated from the Academy. Mother and son reconnected, but Ran began to understand that for Shiho, no one was more important than Sakura. Not even his own mother. And if she sometimes displayed the same behavior she'd feared from her own mother-in-law, well, it sometimes felt like her son had married the child, so why shouldn't she bully her like a new bride?

For her part Sakura didn't complain. She knew, despite having become the heir, that she'd hurt Ran-oba-san in a way she couldn't take back. So she resolved to become the best shinobi she could, because one day she would be the oyakata-sama and then, surely, Ran-oba-san might forgive her a little. And so Haruno Sakura graduated the Academy at eleven years of age.

-X-X-X-

Hatake Kakashi surveyed the three gennin the Hokage was attempting to foist on him again. Ever since he'd resigned his position in ANBU the Hokage had tried to make into a proper jounin-sensei, but Kakashi wasn't about to let anyone get that close again. It was one thing to have the faceless teammates ANBU had provided him with, every one skilled enough to offer him at least a challenge, but gennin were special. Newborn ninja, they were as vulnerable as true infants. They would _depend_ upon him for everything, when he had nothing left to give.

This year was interesting mostly for the variety. One jinchuuriki, one orphaned potential Sharingan user, and the obligatory kunoichi. With hair the deep pink of a sunrise. That made one of Kakashi's brows disappear into his hairline. "Well, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

That led to a demand from the blonde that he introduce himself first. Chuckling internally at their bemused expressions as he obliged them, he almost sighed at Uzumaki's dream. For a single moment he was almost painfully reminiscent of his own mentor, but then the resemblance disappeared, buried beneath their many differences.

He turned next to the kunoichi, ensconced to one side of the glowering Uchiha. She was wearing a shirt that seemed far too large for her, the long sleeves prevented from falling over her hands by means of cloth strips bound around her forearms. It was an almost traditional ninja look, except for the way her thin body was swathed in its folds. If she was standing the hem would almost certainly fall to her thighs.

As the rest of her was presented very neatly, from the way her long hair was braided tightly back to the traditional dark tabi and waraji on her feet, making her almost suspiciously indistinct, Kakashi wondered whether there was more to her choice than her mother hadn't done the laundry.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," the girl introduced herself levelly, her expression thoughtful. Her wide green eyes and oversized shirt made her seem smaller and younger than she was. "I like Shiho-nii," she said after a moment. "I don't dislike much of anything. My hobby is reading. My goal is to make Ran-oba-san happy."

Kakashi blinked. It was a peculiarly _small_ dream. Especially when compared to the loud-mouthed brat and the Uchiha, who seemed to have a flair for the deeply melodramatic as he gave his own introduction. But it didn't matter. They would fail and she would have another year to find another dream.

-X-X-X-

Shiki-dono was there when Sakura returned home. Instead of greeting her as she knelt in front of him, he instead stared levelly at her. "Ran tells me that your teams were announced today."

"Yes."

"And your teammates?"

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. My jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi. But we won't be officially gennin until we pass his test."

Shiki-dono frowned. "An Uchiha?"

Kagami, who was as always floating at shoulder level, not even interested in pretending life like Shiho-nii, snorted. "It's a good thing she's almost tall enough to wield that big pointy stick. If you didn't have Shiho, you probably would have ended up following around that boy like a bitch in heat. Is he at least cute?"

A faint blush pinked Sakura's ears. Kagami was almost as bad as Shiki-dono. While Shiki-dono inspired a fearsome kind of respect, Kagami always made her feel like she was sharing a dirty secret just by speaking. If Shiki-dono could use fear as a weapon, then Kagami used sex just as effectively. "He would have been my fixation?" she asked.

"Perhaps," Shiki-dono remarked. "If Chouko had been allowed to form you, I can only imagine what foolishness she would have allowed you to indulge in."

"And instead you've raised her up to be like you," Kagami said dryly. "What a dramatic improvement."

Shiki-dono was unperturbed by his weapon's words. Sakura found their relationship fairly peculiar. Kagami almost seemed like she simultaneously resented, feared, and respected her wielder. Not like Shiho-nii, who was still as much her hero as ever. Sakura had nothing against her new teammate, but he could never make her feel as warm and whole as Shiho-nii. She was almost certain the Uchiha was missing something himself, some vital component in his psyche.

"Sakura is my heir. I could do nothing less," Shiki-dono said blandly. "And she has done nothing less than live up to the promise she showed when she was first chosen."

Sakura wondered if it was strange that there was not a single person in the room who would flinch at the reminder of the bloodshed that day had seen, when fourteen other children of the clan had died.

"But useless memories are not what I've come to discuss. If your sensei is Hatake Kakashi, then there is all the more reason to allow you to utilize your full abilities from now on."

Sakura looked up at him with surprise. After so many years of hiding her skill, why would Shiki-dono choose now to unveil it? As his heir, she belonged to the oyakata-sama, owing him both obedience and deference. She was, in a sense, a weapon. And, as Shiki-dono had told her years ago, "A weapon flashed too often loses its ability to inspire fear."

"Your new sensei is somewhat famous. I don't know that he'll show it to you tomorrow, but he has a transplanted Sharingan from a former teammate. His legend is built on its strength, though I don't doubt he's talented enough in his own right. He did make jounin before he received it, after all."

"And then promptly failed his first mission, right?" Kagami prompted. "That was the one where he got the Uchiha brat on his team killed."

"Indeed."

From behind her, Sakura felt Shiho-nii shift. "How do you know so much about Konoha's ninjas?" Shiho-nii asked.

Shiki-dono peered at the spirit through narrowed eyes. "I do not ask any of the clan members to betray a village they have an active allegiance to. However, for most ninja of jounin class, it is easy enough to piece their history together through information held by foreign ninjas. Especially flashy ones like Hatake."

"Why don't cha just tell the brats 'I know everything' like your expression is saying?" Kagami teased.

"Because a belief in one's own invincibility is the surest path to an early death," Shiki answered her.

"So," Sakura asked, "if Kakashi-sensei makes us fight each other, it's alright to go at the others with killing intent?"

"No," Shiho-nii bit out before Shiki-dono could even open his mouth. Sakura half-turned to look at the spirit, who looked exactly as he had the day he'd died for her. "This is Konoha, not Kiri. You cannot go at your teammates with intent to kill. You cannot let her," he told Shiki-dono.

"I didn't mean it like that," Sakura told him frantically. "I wouldn't even let the kekkei genkai bud. I just meant, is it alright to force down their qi with mine?" She could see Ran-oba-san watching her with wary, judgmental eyes. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm not…" then she trailed off, because could she really claim to not be monster? "I didn't mean it like that," she simply repeated.

"I don't think Shiho ever thought you did. I think he just didn't want you to give me any ideas," Shiki-dono explained. "But he shouldn't worry. I'm just opening your options, not commanding you to slaughter your classmates. Despite the significant time that has passed between his career in the ANBU and his current position as a jounin, Hatake has never taken on a gennin team. That makes it highly likely that his exam is extremely difficult. Is that not so, Shiho?"

"Yes, Shiki-dono," Shiho-nii said after a moment's hesitation. "But surely…."

"You are Sakura's path forward, not the anchor that holds her back," Shiki-dono said in a voice so flat that Sakura felt goosebumps rise on her arms.

Shiho-nii went very still, even his flowing robes stilling from their usual movement. He knelt by Sakura's side, then quite deliberately lowered his head. "Forgive me from my impertinence, oyakata-sama. However, as much as Sakura is _yours,_ she was first _mine._ It is my duty to keep her from the path of the Thousand Generation Flower. And with all due respect, you were born with it blooming in your heart."

"Shiho!" Ran-oba-san protested, her mouth falling open in shock.

"Hahaue, please be silent," Shiho-nii said. Sakura's eyes widened in shock. Shiho-nii never spoke back to his mother and he never addressed her so formally. She chanced a glance toward her companion, who though she'd been with him six years, still surprised her. Shiho-nii's face, normally so relaxed and open, was set in implacable lines. Even Kagami seemed to tense.

And then Shiki-dono smiled. "Sakura, you will complete the task Hatake assigns you tomorrow without hesitation or pity. You will be established as a gennin of Konohanagakure. This is my absolute order as your oyakata-sama." He reached into his kimono and removed a thick scroll with a pattern of dark clouds roiling across the back. "This is a sealing scroll. Shiho can instruct you in its use. You are to seal him in it and carry him with you when you take your test. If you bloom beyond the First Flower you are to unseal him immediately. This order is also absolute."

Sliding the scroll across to Sakura, Shiki-dono stood. "Thank you for your hospitality, Ran. As always, it was a pleasure." And then he was gone, before she could even blink.

At her side, if it was possible for a spirit to pale, Shiho-nii did it. "I couldn't even see him move," he murmured.

"Shiho-nii?"

His mouth turned down in a frustrated gesture. "I was a jounin before I died, Sakura-chan. And I couldn't even see him move."

"That's why he's the oyakata-sama," Ran-oba-san's frosty voice startled her as the older woman stood, smoothing down her slacks. Picking up her discarded apron, she headed for the kitchen. "Shiki-dono succeeded as the head when he challenged the former oyakata-sama to one-on-one combat. That is how he inherited so young."

Sakura watched her go with trepidation, knowing that it would be days before she forgave Shiho-nii. "Was the former oyakata-sama very weak?"

Ran-oba-san snorted. "What a foolish question."

"I just wanted to know why Shiki-dono would challenge him. Weakness is the only sin Shiki-dono cannot forgive," Sakura explained.

Ran-oba-san shot her a peculiar look, but grudgingly elucidated. "The rumors at the time said he just got tired of waiting. Nothing can hold Shiki-dono's interest for long. And it would take a very long time to wait for the former oyakata-sama to die."

Ran turned back again, her steps hard and angry. "Kaa-san, I…" Shiho-nii began, but she cut him off.

"Teach Sakura how to seal you. She'll need to go bed early after dinner." With that she disappeared into the next room.

Shiho-nii watched her go with sad, old eyes. "I didn't want to hurt her. But I won't let Shiki-dono turn you into him."

Sakura wished she could hug him in that moment, but he was a spirit. He could speak and be heard, he could be seen by those of Haruno blood, but he could not touch or be touched. Only the weapon that was his body could do that. "I won't turn into Shiki-dono, Shiho-nii," she promised. "I think…I think Shiki-dono was born the way he is. He was always better, stronger, and smarter. He never learned to respect people as his equals, because they weren't. But I also think, until Kagami went Walking in the the White Moon Garden for him, Shiki-dono was probably lonely, the kind of lonely that could eat up the world to fill the hole in itself. And, at the end, when there was nothing left, he would only feel empty."

Shiho-nii was looking at her with wide eyes, but Sakura didn't stop talking. She would never, ever lie to Shiho-nii, but he could not understand. He had been born to live a short life, but his soul was whole. He couldn't grasp what the Haruno crest signified. Not the circle of eternity, but the emptiness it curled around. How very easily that Thousand Generation Flower bloomed. And he needed to know, needed to be there, because only kami-sama knew how much that tiny crack, that imperfection of the soul that the main clan children were born with, was really a fissure without end.

"He would never feel guilt, even if he destroyed the world, not without Kagami," Sakura felt a peculiar sensation of warmth sliding down her cheeks and realized she was crying. "So Shiho-nii, don't worry about me becoming Shiki-dono, because I can only be Sakura, which means I have you, forever, right Shiho-nii?"

And even though he couldn't really touch her, Sakura imagined she could feel it when he ran his hand gently though her hair, then moved his spirit closer, so she was enveloped by the white folds of a fabric she would never feel. When he moved his chin to rest on top of her head, there was no sensation of weight, but Sakura could imagine and it was enough.

"So," he asked when her tears had stopped, "shall I teach you to seal me?"

-X-X-X-

He'd been put in a team with the village idiot and a girl who'd lost every practical spar she'd ever participated in. When Hatake Kakashi arrived four hours late, after telling them not to eat breakfast, Uchiha Sasuke officially decided this was a _bad day._

-X-X-X-

Despite not intending to allow them to actually become gennin, Kakashi had bothered to look over their files, just so no nasty surprises would crop up. Experience had taught him that an opponent didn't necessarily have to be good, just lucky. And it would be awfully tacky to be killed by someone who wasn't even officially a gennin yet.

When all his good little gennin candidates had gathered round, he presented them with their task. "I want you to take these bells from me," he said, dangling them so they jingled for good effect.

"What? What kind of test it that?" Naruto protested. Kakashi wanted to roll his eyes but refrained. Did he really think taking on a jounin was within his capabilities? Even for someone with an outrageous dream like becoming Hokage, that was a little much.

"If you really want to take them, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill." Sakura flinched at that and he suppressed the urge to sigh. How did she expect to be a ninja without hurting anyone?

And then that orange knucklehead thought that he could prove himself by not waiting for the signal. Not a bad tactic, really, if he had any follow through at all. But he didn't, so that ended quickly enough.

"Now, begin," he commanded and Sasuke and Sakura leaped away, leaving only the ninja that Kakashi desultorily predicted would be the loudest Hokage to ever live if he ever made it to the office. But even his shadow clones were more flashy than effective. _It doesn't matter how much chakra you pour into a jutsu if you don't know how to use it._

Watching him crawl back out of the river was amusing, but Kakashi thought he might have to present an opening to the others to draw them out. Both Sasuke and Sakura seemed too cautious to attack him otherwise.

Just as he was preparing it and he felt the Uchiha's chakra spike in anticipation, Sakura burst from the tree line, three kunai leading the way, another gripped securely in her hand.

Substituting himself with a log, which splintered as the kunai dug deeply into it, he again felt that feeling of wrongness as the pink-haired girl immediately changed direction. Preparing himself, he half-expected her to charge right in, but instead she swooped low, flinging a handful of the loose-sandy dirt into his face. It was just unexpected enough to make him hesitate, which meant the razor-edge of her kunai _almost _drew a bloody furrow through his eyes.

"That's pretty low, trying to take out my eyes on the first blow," he said as he blocked a reverse strike.

"If I destroyed your eyes, you wouldn't be able to use your Sharingan," the girl murmured and as she made eye contact with him, Kakashi was suddenly hit with a black wave of killing intent. _What…is this_? No gennin should be able to radiate killing intent like this. Kakashi felt uneasy as he watched the steady, calm face of the eleven year old. Most learned killing intent in a deep rage, but this girl who wasn't even a gennin used it like someone from the wars, like a weapon and a promise.

He barely brought his hand up in time to catch her wrist as she made another strike, this one a curving blow intended to disembowel him. But he only had control of one hand and the other dipped into her pouch, coming out with a handful of paper bombs.

"Think fast," she challenged as she threw them in his face. Pulling another substitution he was able to avoid the explosion, but he had to let go of her wrist. Before he could recover from the idea of her willingness to blow both of them up, she was coming again, this time drawing a summoning scroll. As she bit her thumb, Kakashi took the opportunity to safely stow _Icha Icha Paradise_. Kunai flicked into his hand as he went on guard, unwilling to be caught totally unprepared again. He wasn't even worrying about the others. Naruto seemed to be frozen at the bank of the river and Sasuke hadn't budged from his perch.

However, nothing could have really prepared him for the massive halberd-like weapon that appeared from the smoke, which she grasped confidently. "Ran-oba-san said it would only be polite if I introduced Shiho-nii to you," she yelled, swinging the thing downwards with enough force to sever a man cleanly in half with the momentum alone.

Kakashi sidestepped, but Sakura recovered from the movement much faster than he anticipated, flipping the blade and tracing an upward diagonal slash that actually lost him half a centimeter of hair from his left side. He was still adjusting to her movements when she dropped the guan dao, leaping forward with even more speed than she'd previously displayed, tucking and rolling at the last moment like a gymnast. A hot line opened in his side where the narrow blade that must have been tucked in a wrist sheath cut through his flak jacket.

This time she didn't even give him warning as another handful of paper bombs filled the air. As Kakashi retreated, he noticed abruptly that one of his bells was missing. Startled, he watched as she appeared through the smoke, grabbing her guan dao from the ground, then disappearing back into the trees. Her killing intent, which had never wavered for a moment, vanished just as easily as her chakra signature.

In that moment, if the Uchiha or Uzumaki had been thinking, it would have been their best chance to get a bell.

-X-X-X-

Naruto shivered and it wasn't from the cold water that he was still standing in. He hadn't been able to move when Sakura had emerged some the trees. He still could barely move. Naruto was no stranger to being hated and he sometimes thought people wanted him dead, but this hadn't been about him. He knew it had been about Kakashi-sensei, but Sakura's will to kill had left his insides lined with ice. Naruto hoped she would never, ever look at him the way she'd looked at Kakashi-sensei.

People looked at him like he was a monster, but Sakura had looked at their sensei like he was just less than nothing, just a barrier between her and the bells. He'd been in her class at the Academy since she'd enrolled, but he'd never seen her display anything like what he'd just seen. Even Kakashi-sensei had looked surprised.

_Sakura wouldn't really kill Kakashi-sensei, would she?_

-X-X-X-

He hadn't been able to act. Kakashi had left himself open, but Sasuke hadn't been able to force his hand to move. _What _was_ that?_ It had almost been worse than…no, he refused to think that. Nothing in this world could be worse than that night.

Had that even been the same girl? Sakura was notorious for avoiding physical confrontation, but she hadn't just confronted Kakashi, she'd managed to make the jounin bleed. The sensation, that heavy, fearsome feeling, made him shocky, reminding him of his brother and what he'd done. That was his teammate? It was impossible.

But, as she leaped into a tree neighboring his, he caught sight of her eyes. They were the same focused green as they'd always been, her hair that same deep pink.

"Better hurry, Sasuke-san," she called out encouragingly as she leaped higher in the tree. "It'll be noon before you know it."

A/N: You know, this fic was partially inspired by the fact that we never get to meet Sakura's parents. In fact, we only hear a female voice speaking to her about twice in the whole series. It was one of those lines, when a strident female voice asked her to come and help with the housework, that I asked myself, "What if Sakura had a guardian rather than parents?" That's how Ran was born. Then one thought led to another and suddenly my story was populated with characters who just took on a life of their own.

And, y'know, I just scrolled back over this chapter and this is seriously the most depressing story I've ever written.

Next chapter you get to find out if the fate of Team Seven. Will they pass the bell test? And how will Sakura react when Kakashi threatens the life of her new teammate?


	5. The Meaning of Team

Disclaimer: I imagine it might be lovely to own the Naruto franchise. Unfortunately, I never expect to know how that feels in reality. In other words, copyright belongs to the appropriate parties.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far! Your encouragement means a lot to me. And I'm glad everyone's not finding the OCs too unbearable. I promised they'd disappear in a few chapters, but turns out they're far more insidious. Especially Shiki. I'm not sure he'll allow me to write him out of the story.

And I was really glad no one seemed too terribly upset at Sakura getting a bell, but I've read a lot of bell test scenes. Most of them involve an insightful Sakura who is able to figure out the goal is teamwork. But when I considered that, I realized that wouldn't be anything like what Shiki would teach her. While Sakura's combat abilities are significantly increased, her social skills are somewhat...lacking. And, when I was refreshing my memory, I realized there was even precedent for her getting a bell-both Orochimaru and Tsunade were able to acquire the bells in their own test. And while I believe Kakashi is a really powerful ninja, so was Sarutobi in his prime.

After all, while Kakashi focuses on teamwork, the test is also meant to see if they have the combat skills to become a gennin. In canon Sasuke comes very close-so a Sakura trained rigorously and exclusively by her clan might also have a chance. Especially against a jounin trying to give them a chance at the bells. And he's hardly going to return her intent.

Chapter Five

-The Meaning of Team-

Ran knelt before Shiki-dono. "I hope that my son did not offend you," she murmured to the clan head who'd appeared only moments after Sakura and Shiho had taken their leave.

"Why would I be offended?" Shiki-dono inquired, his expression an pleasant, empty kind of polite that he often employed no matter what the topic. It did not reassure Ran, who lowered her head even further. "Shiho is doing what he believes best for Sakura."

"Poor boy's probably stressed," Kagami interjected, almost interrupting Shiki-dono. "After all, Sakura hasn't used him much in public, has she? Not even after what, six years? All the action he sees is against us or the Haruno clan sensei that Shiki sends and he didn't even get to participate in those until a few years ago. He's spent a lot of his life as a weapon living like he isn't one, which means he's got to feel all but useless. He can't even touch the girl, for kami's sake."

Shiki-dono inclined his head. "I will not take action against your son in any case. He belongs to Sakura, which means he is hers to chastise."

It also meant that if he had truly displeased Shiki, it would be Sakura that would bear the brunt of his displeasure, which would only make Shiho feel more miserable. Ran frowned.

"Something wrong?" Kagami asked.

"I only have a few years left," Ran replied quietly.

Eyes narrowed, those sharp verdant eyes piercing, Shiki observed, "If that. You have lived a long life for a branch clan member."

Ran looked down, unable to meet those eyes for long. While Shiho had spoken in anger, his words weren't misplaced. The old saying went that eyes were the windows to the soul, but Shiki-dono's eyes were a cup filled with emptiness, waiting to overflow. Not even Kagami could stem it completely.

"I do not begrudge the main house their lifespan," she began. "I am grateful to have had so much time with Shiho. Many mothers of shinobi do not have half so long with their children. But I worry what they will do when I am gone. No matter what her capabilities are as a ninja, Sakura is still a child in many ways."

"What would you have of me, Ran?" Shiki-dono asked.

"I would ask to go Walking in the White Moon Garden," Ran said, pressing her forehead to the floor.

"No," Shiki-dono said softly. Ran sat up, surprised. She hadn't thought that Shiki-dono would deny her that. "You must let Shiho go." Ran tensed, feeling defensive. When she would have protested, Shiki-dono raised a hand to forestall her.

"Not even Shiki's cruel enough to give someone an eternal mother-in-law," Kagami quipped, stretching in a way that came dangerously close to being indecent, making the slit skirts of her kimono ride up her thighs. Shiki-dono didn't even twitch.

Ran swallowed nervously. Anger was a distinctly _unhealthy_ emotion to display in front of the oyakata-sama. "Please, Shiki-dono." She poured into those words all her feelings, her desire to continue to watch over her son and the girl she was fond of despite herself, her frustration at being torn from this life so soon, and her rage at her own blood, which had stolen her Shiho away in the first place.

There was a terrible, long silence, but then, "If Sakura has a use for you when that time comes, then I will consider your plea. The main house owes you that much," Shiki-dono granted her. "But, recall, Ran, what I told you before. You must let Shiho go. The child that you loved died long ago."

-X-X-X-

Hatake Kakashi was going to have _words_ with whoever was supposed to be assessing the gennin. Not only was Haruno Sakura capable of more killing intent than some of the better chunnin he'd met, Naruto had somehow learned the Kage Bunshin technique and Sasuke was capable of fire ninjutsu. None of which were gennin level skills. Some, like Kage Bunshin, weren't even supposed to be chunnin level.

He'd never had difficulties culling teams in the past. He'd though he wouldn't have difficulties with this one, despite feeling that it was sort of too bad for the Uchiha. But now he had a situation on his hands. Kaskashi had lashed Naruto to the post when he'd tried to circumvent the whole test by going ahead and eating the bentos, which was an ingenious solution to be sure, but now he had a quandary.

Normally he would give them a lecture, invite the other two to enjoy their lunches while Naruto looked on, and give them one last chance to redeem themselves, but the fact remained that Sakura _had_ _already gotten a bell._ Technically she'd fulfilled the stated requirements of his test, if not the spirit of it.

And what in the world was the girl doing with a gaun dao? It wasn't that ninja couldn't fight with unconventional weapons, but she looked a little ridiculous. Already slight, she was visually overpowered by the sheer size of it. But, he thought ruefully, that didn't seem to impair her handling of it.

Sighing, he appeared before his prospective students. Sasuke was fairly seething as he stood to the right of the post Naruto had been tied to, but Sakura's expression was subtly pleased with herself. He had a feeling that she'd locked her excitement down tight, lest she start grinning broadly and antagonize the others. Even though they stood together before him, each was locked in their own little world, one that didn't involve the others.

Beneath his mask, Kakashi frowned. Even if one of them had got a bell, this was one of the most discordant teams he'd been asked to evaluate. Maybe the lecture was still needed after all.

-X-X-X-

"You don't have the qualifications to become ninja."

When he said that, it was like something shorted out in Sasuke's brain, and forgetting tactics or jutsu, he blindly charged the jounin whose skills he knew without a doubt eclipsed his own.

And before his mind could catch up with his actions, he suddenly had his face down in the dirt, arm pulled painfully back in a submission hold, foot pressed humiliatingly down on his head, he wondered where he'd gone wrong. He was at the top of his class. If anyone deserved to be a ninja, it was him.

-X-X-X-

"Are you kids thinking that being a ninja is easy? Huh? Why do you think you're doing this exercise in teams?" Kakashi-sensei challenged them.

"It's as if you guys have no understanding of the answer to this test," he continued, grinding his heel into the back of Sasuke's head.

"Answer...?" Naruto asked with confusion from his position on the post.

Sakura's hand tightened around the warming metal of the bell she held in one hand. At her side, Shiho-nii watched with tightly pressed lips. He'd said this was something she needed to learn for herself, but she didn't understand. She'd done everything as Shiki-dono and Kakashi-sensei had said. She gotten the bell. What had she done wrong?

"Yes. The answer that determines whether you pass or fail this test. Haven't you even realized the meaning of the three-man squad?"

"Meaning...?" Sakura inquired tightly.

"Teamwork," Kakashi-sensei told them. "But it's too late even if you realize that now. If all three of you had come at me, you might have gotten both bells. But it's too bad."

"You mean," Sakura said after a moment, "that the only reason there were only two bells was to create internal discord? Not to test our skills?"

"Exactly. This is a test set up to purposely place you against one another. It's especially important when your own interests are at stake. The intention was to select those who could prioritize teamwork. Despite this, you fools..."

Sakura was certain her knuckles were bone-white as she clenched her fingers tighter. Though Shiho-nii had said he wouldn't interfere, he stepped closer, placing an insubstantial hand on her head. "It's all right..." he murmured as Kakashi harshly deconstructed their strategies.

"Missions are carried out in squads. They're no mistaking that ninjas need unsurpassed individual skills," he said with a pointed look at Sakura, "but teamwork is considered more important than that."

In her mind's eye, she could almost see Shiki-dono standing by her side, looking at her with that sidelong, dismissive glance, "The clan exists in two parts and both those parts are necessary to the whole."  
>But the kind of teamwork the jounin was talking about seemed very different from the partnership within in the clan. The clan was bound by ties of blood and mutual obligation, receiving direction through tradition and the oyakata-sama. But even within the clan, most of the members spent their lives serving the kage of different countries or living out their existences as civilians without any particularly close connections. The fifteen year reunions and edicts from Shiki-dono were the only things that gave them the will of a clan.<p>

And though they'd been her classmates for six years, the two boys might as well have been strangers.

Kakashi-sensei was still speaking. "Individual actions that disrupt teamwork throw the team into crisis and lead to death. For example," and he reached into his pouch and casually withdrew a kunai, placing it at Sasuke's throat, "Sakura! Kill Naruto or else Sasuke dies."

At her side, Shiho-nii tensed, his tall frame leaning forward as if he would interfere himself. "Remember," he reminded her despite having said that this was her challenge to overcome, "this is a test. This is Konoha, not Mizu. He won't actually kill a gennin candidate to make a point."

Sakura knew he was right. Despite his peculiar attitude shift and the rough way he'd been speaking, Kakashi-sensei wasn't using killing intent. He was threatening, to be certain, but she was suddenly sure what he'd been looking for was their first reaction.

And Sakura knew what her first reaction was. "Let him go," she said, gripping Shiho-nii more tightly and doing her best impression of Shiki-dono's terribly flat voice.

"So you'd choose to kill Naruto?" Kakashi-sensei demanded.

"No," Sakura replied hollowly. "I'd kill you and finish the mission."

"That's some kind of arrogance you've got, kid, just because I let you take one bell," Kakashi-sensei noted. "And what happens when you're outclassed?"

Sakura relaxed her death grip on the bell in her off hand, letting the bell fall, tinkling softly, into the dust at her feet. Ever so slowly, her grip on Shiho-nii become more natural as well.

"Sakura…," Shiho-nii said softly.

"The mission must always come first. But it is my responsibility as a shinobi of Konoha and my duty to the name Haruno to complete it perfectly. Without exception," she pronounced and in a single dramatic move, she reversed her hold on Shiho-nii, bringing his blade through the ropes that bound Naruto, parting them as easily as air.

He regained his feet with a stunned expression. "Sakura-chan?"

"It is our obligation to take into consideration the criticism of our sensei, Naruto-san. He's a little bigger than a bell, but I think we might manage to take Sasuke-san anyway," and she tilted her head as proudly as Kagami ever had.

At her words, Naruto grinned broadly, foxlike confidence restored. "You got that right."  
>"I've already got a kunai at his throat," Kakashi said. "Do you really think you're fast enough to<p>

save him?"

Sakura knew what Shiki-dono's response to that challenge would have been. _If you're going to kill him, do so already._ But without allowing her kekkei genkei to bloom, she wasn't that cold, nor did she have the sheer skill of Shiki-dono to back her threat.

But Sakura was Shiki-dono's heir, her will forged in bloodshed. Sakura had known for a long time that what the Haruno clan practiced was not considered normal, even before Chouko had attempted to destroy the clan, even before she'd been told she was not to spar with her classmates. Perhaps she didn't really understand what Kakashi-sensei meant when he spoke of teamwork, but she could imagine Shiki-dono's disappointment if he was to hear of the mess she'd made of such a simple test.

"Sakura, be careful," Shiho-nii said, more sharply this time.

She'd already backed herself into a corner with her words and too late she realized the tactical mistake she'd made. It was as foolish as Sasuke's headlong rush at the jounin had been. But she didn't regret it. Even if she failed here, she would have shown her pride as a Haruno and as a shinobi. This was her nindo.

_A life without pride is not worth living,_ someone in the past had once told her many times.

"We won't allow you to kill our teammate," Sakura reiterated firmly, her mind running scenarios as she wished the Uchiha hadn't been _foolish_ enough to get himself caught in the first place.

-X-X-X-

This was really getting out of hand. There was nothing more dangerous to a ninja than bad information and it seemed he'd collected it in _spades._ Haruno Sakura had only one known ninja relative in the village, a distant cousin named Haruno Shiho who'd died years ago.

But ninja skills didn't just appear out of thin air. Someone had been training her. Someone with a distinct flair for the dramatic and more than a touch of ruthlessness. Someone dangerous, because he'd lost control of the conversation so quickly he hadn't had time to think. He'd been about to put his kunai away and explain what a dangerous position their division had put them in, but then Sakura had met his challenge in all seriousness.

And there was a cold sort of resolve in the young girl, so much that he hadn't been able to ignore it. Whereas Kakashi thought she was the furthest from understanding the importance of teamwork, he thought she might be the closest to understanding what it meant to be a shinboi. There was an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he recalled the data from her file correctly, she'd only ever been out of the village to visit family. Where would she have seen the kind of violence necessary to put such determined pride in her eyes, though he'd seen the flash of hesitation when she'd realized her misstep.

Abruptly he decided to take pity on her. Sheathing his kunai, he released the Uchiha and stood. "This is what will happen if you cannot learn to function as a team. On top of having a hostage taken, you'll be faced with two impossible choices and end up being killed. And at your level, you could never hope to employ the option of killing your attacker, because you won't be the only one working in a team. Your enemies will be as well," he told Sakura repressively, but even though she lowered her head, her eyes were still and watchful. They were not child's eyes. Not children of this era, born into a peace bought by the blood friends and comrades.

-X-X-X-

If asked, Sasuke would say that the incessant rumbling of Naruto's stomach as he sat on his heels, eyes closed tightly shut as if he could will his hunger away, was so irritating that he'd offered him part of his lunch just to shut him up. But the truth was that Sasuke, even without his Sharingan, was perceptive in a way that people didn't normally attribute to him.

Even if the experience had been humiliating, he'd been in a position to know better than anyone that Kakashi hadn't been serious. But if anything, just for a few moments, he'd been afraid of his own teammate again and he _hated_ that even more than he'd hated being taught a lesson by a jounin. Because Haruno Sakura was his age, had gone through the same lessons, been in his class for a long time, but she'd won where he'd lost.

There'd been something very staged, an underlying message in Kakashi's words, so acting on his suspicion Sasuke had made the overture. After a moment Sakura had offered a part of her own bentou, even though the bell she'd dropped was still lying in the dust, neither he nor Naruto having bothered it.

When Kakashi appeared before them, storm clouds roiling over his head, he knew a moment's doubt, but then, "You pass."

Sasuke was certain they all wore equally stunned looks on their faces.

-X-X-X-

Sakura was still confused by what had transpired as she walked home. Naruto-san had invited her for ramen after their test, but she'd declined. She was certain Shiki-dono would be waiting. In her right hand, she held the bell that Kakashi-sensei had picked up and placed in her palm, telling her to keep it as a souvenir.

Opening the door quietly, she called out, "I'm home."

"Welcome back," Shiki-dono's voice answered as he appeared from around the corner. "Ran has prepared tea."

Sakura followed him into the living room, searching for the best way to phrase her question. "Shiki-dono, are teammates really more important than the mission?" she blurted at last as she unfurled the scroll that had Shiho-nii sealed inside. When the familiar spirit appeared she relaxed incrementally. Eventually he would be able to appear even while his body rested inside the scroll, but as of yet he was trapped in a sleeping state when sealed.

"It would depend, of course, upon the teammate and the mission. What is Hatake's opinion?" Shiki-dono queried.

As she relayed what had transpired, Sakura tried to sort out her own thoughts about the events. He'd sounded so reflective and remorseful when staring at the memorial stone, but to her they were only the names of the long dead. Maybe it had something to do with being a Haruno. When branch members died they didn't depart and members of the main house were notoriously long-lived and difficult to kill. But when they were gone, it was easy to bloom into the First Flower state and let them go if the attachment was painful.

"So he only passed you after you showed a willingness to support each other?" Shiki-dono murmured. "Interdependency is something I did not teach you, because as the heir, you will one day stand alone as the oyakata-sama with only Shiho by your side. Perhaps you will collect advisors and followers, but they are only a crutch that should not be depended on. They will always fail you at the least opportune moments," Shiki-dono said darkly.

"Don't be nasty, Shiki," Kagami scolded. "Sakura'll have to play by Konoha's rules if she wants to live here. And Konoha ninja are legendary for being big softies when it comes to their teammates. Just think, you'll get to make friends."

Sakura frowned up at the spirit. "I have Shiho-nii."

Kagami rolled her eyes. "And Shiho is all great and wonderful, but if you hit puberty with only that big metal pole around to comfort you, you're going to have some serious problems."

"Kagami-sama!" Shiho-nii snapped, obviously appalled.

"I'm just saying, Shiho, that metal gets mighty cold on long nights," she taunted with a smirk, flicking her hair back over her shoulder from where it had pooled over the bare tops of her breasts.

"I think we were discussing Sakura-chan's teammates, not…that," Shiho said stiffly.

Kagami winked at Sakura, who automatically flushed and was then appalled with herself for the reaction. "Team play is fun too, or at least it was until I became partners with Shiki here." Shiki-dono continued to drink his tea, unperturbed by the weapon and seemingly content for her to give the advice. "But what I'm trying to tell ya is that you're gonna be here, on this planet, for a while yet. And it's an awful long time to be alone with someone who can't even touch you."

Some of her confusion must have shown on her face. "I know that hasn't been a big deal in your life after that fiasco as the ceremony, but every human being has a need to be touched in a way that doesn't have anything to do with killing. Well, except maybe Shiki," she amended when the oyakata-sama glanced over at her. "Teammates are like captive friends—they're required to be with you, so you don't have to worry about them ducking out while you try to make nice. With any luck, you can get people who'll support you for something other than your ability to slice and dice."

Shiho-nii sighed. "Please don't give her such confusing advice," he requested wearily.

Kagami snorted. "Think you can do better, Shiho? You've been with her for six years. Does she even speak to people besides you? Does she have any friends? What? Is that a resounding no?"

Shiho-nii scowled. "Sakura-chan-"

"Has never needed to make friends because you've always been there for her," Kagami stated bluntly. "And you'll always be there for her. We get that, but you can't be the only one there for her Shiho. The closest thing she's probably got to a real, live friend right now is Shiki."

They both shuddered at the thought. Shiki-dono frowned. "If you must have this discussion, remember that I am right here, Kagami."

She waved him off. "So, Sakura, here's what you do…"

A/N: Wow. Sakura really played up the clan heir role in this chapter. Hopefully we can get some actual interaction going in the next chapters, as well as some action. Definitely a dialogue heavy scene. So, just as kind of an interest poll, if Sakura has a pairing in this story (and I can't guarantee there'll be one) who would you like to see? I've been entertaining the idea of either Gaara or Itachi, because they're relatively "gentle" character types after Gaara meets Naruto, but I'm not entirely certain. I could always go the way of the ol' Team Seven fic, which I've never done before. Or, if you're not tired of him, we can see more of Neji, who tends to feature heavily in my stories and I though this might be an opportunity to branch out.

Also, special recognition to Zephyrus246, who has written some amazingly long and detailed reviews and also pointed out that I was misspelling kekkei genkai.


	6. If I Call Out

Disclaimer: I have no claims to copyright and I don't intend to infringe upon it.

A/N: Now the awkward, dysfunctional relationship of Team Seven begins.

The First Flower of Spring

Chapter Six

If I Call Out...

Sakura tried to control the urge to fidget nervously. She was a disciplined, talented young shinobi. There was no need to be nervous simply because she and her two teammates were alone, waiting on Kakashi-sensei. After all, they'd chosen such a pretty bridge as their meeting point. She could watch the stream flow beneath the bridge and not think on Kagami-sama's suggestions for improving 'team relations.'

Even Naruto was being quiet, which doubled the awkward silence. Thinking of them in her head without honorifics was the first step in being able to say their names without them. That had been a reasonable suggestion that Shiho-nii had supported. Some of the others didn't bear mentioning.

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan," Naruto's eager voice broke the silence between Team Seven, "where'd you get that weapon you had the other day? It was so cool!"

Sakura noticed that even Sasuke glanced over at her with interest. "Shiho-nii was a gift," she said. "From my family."

"You named it?" Sasuke asked, one dark brow rising toward his hairline.

"Ran-oba-san named him. He was hers first," Sakura explained, feeling somewhat cross as neither Shiki-dono nor Kagami-sama had suggested ways to divert her teammates' interest from Shiho-nii. Kagami-sama had said, _You shouldn't lie to your teammates. After all, what if, years and years later, they find you've been lyin' for all that time? _Shiki-dono's opinion had been simpler. _Lie_, he'd commanded. _And do so well._ It was Ran-oba-san who'd suggested the middle course of neither lying nor telling the truth.

"I didn't think you came from a ninja clan," Sasuke observed.

"Ran-oba-san wasn't a ninja, but her husband was." Skirting the truth like this was a difficult game for an eleven-year old girl to play, but Sakura had lived in a world of adults since the ceremony. But it was one thing to lie to adults, whose sense of danger and untruth seemed dull by comparison to the children they condescended to.

Luckily for Sakura, Team Seven was remarkable not only for their potential, but for their self-absorption. Whereas leaders usually emerged quickly in the three-man squads, each of the three members of Team Seven were alpha personalities. They were the three points on an equilateral triangle, as distant and strange from one another as points on a geometric plane that would never meet.

So, when she asked Naruto, "What kind of clones were those?" neither of the boys noticed that she hadn't really answered the question.

-X-X-X-

Team Seven completed more D-rank missions than any of the other rookie gennin. It wasn't simply to satisfy Kakashi's sadistic sense of humor, no matter what his cute little disciples accused him of. It was because sparring was a nightmare. It wasn't enough that Naruto and Sasuke acted like every encounter was some sort of personal grudge match that left them just short of hospitalized. Oh no, that would be too easy.

_I must have been a terrible person in my past life,_ Kakashi sighed in his head as he supervised a match between Sakura and Sasuke. There was no splitting into pairs for Team Seven. If they did, he wouldn't be surprised if they were one man short before they ever made it out of the village. Every time he watched Sakura fight, his initial suspicion about her training was proven, but it appeared that _despite_ all the high-level jutsu she'd been taught, no one had bothered to teach the young gennin moderation.

When Sakura fought, it was a kind of _stomp you into the ground and then humiliate you with your own incompetence_ that stopped just short of being mean-spirited. He didn't think she even realized what she was doing. It certainly wasn't conductive to training.

"Sakura," he chided as he watched her dip her fingers into her ninja pouch as Sasuke prepared a fire jutsu, "what did I tell you about explosives?"

The young girl frowned but easily dodged the showy spout of fire that the Uchiha's jutsu produced. She'd fallen into a habit of throwing paper bombs at Sasuke just as his fingers formed the last seal of his jutsus, meaning his fire-based attacks exploded back at him. It was effective, to be certain, but he'd become rather fond of his students in these past few weeks and Sakura never used practice materials—from kunai to explosives, she acted as if she was always in live combat. If Sasuke wasn't so quick, Kakashi was almost sure they would have had a casualty by now.

As he watched her draw a pair of kunais with something like resignation, he thought, _And this is the reason I usually spar with her myself. _

Flickering from his perch, he appeared between them before they clashed. "Sakura," he said cheerfully, "after today's mission we're going to have a talk about what _practice_ means, so you can have some teammates left before you reach chunnin."

Naruto, who'd been watching from the sidelines with his whole frame hunched forward, like he was only moments away from barging into the fight himself, cheered. "Yes! But no more lame missions, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. There were entire days when he wondered exactly _what_ it was he liked about his team.

Thirty minutes later, as his disciples closed in on Shijimi-sama's escape-artist cat, the bane of the current generation of gennin, he was generally amused. After all, Sakura and Sasuke both took the missions so seriously and obeyed his instructions that neither of them were to take point and just secure Tora, but still managed to miss the point of the whole exercise.

He could imagine Sasuke's look of bored indifference as he confirmed the identity of the cat, but Naruto's bellow of "Isn't there a mission with a greater sense of urgency?" threatened to destroy his eardrums.

That feeling, the one why he didn't quite know why he liked his team, returned threefold when they were standing in front of the Hokage, who Naruto had just flat out told he wasn't going to take the next mission they were being offered.

_ I thought it was about time for him to get fretful_, Kakashi thought with a real sense of resignation. It appeared Naruto had reached his breaking point when it came to the inane missions intended to build a sense of comradeship between the gennin fresh from the academy. _His_ gennin likely wouldn't know teamwork if it was a pretty prostitute parading naked in front of them.

That thought distracted him long enough to ignore Iruka's outraged lecture and Sarutobi's explanation of how the missions were distributed, but he found himself listening to Naruto's description of what he'd had for lunch yesterday despite himself. After all, this was all old hat for him, though it was the gennin's experience level they were supposed to be building.

"Listen!" Sarutobi demanded and Kakashi scratched his head sheepishly in apology.

"Maan!" Naruto whined, "You always lecture me, old man."

Kakashi wondered if the kyuubi brat really understood that receiving any personal recognition at all, let alone instruction, from the head of the village was something that ninja strove towards for years. _I'm the one who's going to get a scolding for this later. _

But Kakashi was just as surprised as the rest of his team when the Hokage caved in to Naruto's pouting. "Fine. If you insist...I'll have you do a Rank C mission. You'll be bodyguards for someone."

-X-X-X-

Sakura swallowed nervously. Bodyguards? It wasn't like she didn't have confidence in her combat abilities, but the thought of _protecting _someone was almost as strange as having friends other than Shiho-nii.

But she was Shiki-dono's heir and his last instructions had been to use her full abilities during sparring and if she ever left the village. _Live combat is like living art. You must participate in it to understand it, Sakura, but I think you will learn to enjoy bloodsport in which you need not hold back. Be wary, however, _he cautioned. _If you begin to bloom, Konohagakure will not take kindly to the elimination of your teammates simply because they do not know better than to step between you and your objective. _

She was also a little apprehensive about her upcoming discussion with Kakashi-sensei about practice, though it they went on a serious mission, he might wait to scold her until they returned. Sakura had observed the training spars at the Academy, but that was pre-gennin level combat. Kakashi-sensei surely didn't want her to remain at that level for Sasuke's sake, did he? Kakashi-sensei rarely ever let her spar with Naruto, but Sakura thought he'd likely be in even less danger than Sasuke, even though she could never tell his clones and the original apart.

Since the clones and the original argued on a regular basis over just who was the real Naruto, she didn't feel too badly about that.

Sakura was actually rather proud. The one time Shiki-dono had brought in a chunnin-sensei for her, she'd maimed the girl badly, if on accident. All of her other sensei had been jounin. So she thought for the one of the few times she'd fought gennin outside of the tunnels of Mizu no Kuni, she'd done really well.

It was just…Sasuke tried so hard to be _hard_ and only managed _brittle_, to her eyes. _One day, _she thought with a glance at her dark-haired teammate, _someone was going to bend him and he would break. _

Weakness was the only sin Shiki-dono could not forgive. And just a little, Sakura felt the same way.

-X-X-X-

Kakashi kept a close eye on his students as they were introduced to their charge. While a drunken bridge-builder wasn't exactly a prime target for enemy ninja, it was just as well that his students learned, sooner rather than later, that bodyguard work was not all guarding delicate hime or ambitious and polished politicians.

But, as he watched Naruto complain, he was struck by an idea. "Tazuna-san," he said, gaining the grey-haired man's attention. "Do you mind if we delay our departure by an hour or so? This is my gennin's first trip outside the village and I'd like to supervise their packing."

"They're that incompetent, huh? I wasn't sure about being protected by brats to begin with."

Kakashi winced, expecting a tirade from Naruto, but as he looked over at his orange-clad charge, he was instead standing very still. Sakura's hand rested gently at the back of his neck.

"We're not incompetent, just inexperienced," she said quietly. "If you would like, Tazuna-san, I can recommend several excellent restaurants where you can wait."

Her politeness seemed to take Tazuna aback and he left, mumbling to himself about damn brats. As soon as the door slid closed behind him, Sakura removed her hand and Naruto collapsed to his knees, rubbing furiously at the back of his neck. "Ie, that hurt Sakura-chan!" he complained.

"It was only a pinched nerve," she commented without inflection, looking to Kakashi for further instructions.

"It's not really a good idea to use violence against your teammates," he chided her gently.

Her even green gaze told him she considered violence an efficient method of dealing with anyone, teammates included, but she also struggled to show proper remorse. "Hai, Kakashi-sensei. Sorry for hurting you, Naruto-san."

Naruto chuckled. "It wasn't as bad as all that, Sakura-chan. But hey, Kakashi-sensei, why did you want to supervise our packing?"

"How much do the three of you know about each other?" he asked as he began herding them out the door, not totally different than a similar exercise with cats. Naruto, for example, would be an orange tabby that was only moments away from tripping you as he twined between your legs, demanding attention. Sasuke would be incongruously fluffy and would be the kind of cat that was there but never seen, hiding behind the couch and sneaking into the kitchen for a meal when he though no one was looking. Sakura would be Siamese. A proud cat with wide green eyes that couldn't possibly understand why you were displeased when it kept eating the goldfish.

And all of them convinced they were the center of their very own worlds. "I know Sasuke's a bastard!" Naruto volunteered.

"Dobe," Sasuke sneered.

Kakashi heard, very faintly, what might have been Sakura whispered, "Baka," but her gaze was wide and innocent as he stared down at her.

He sighed. "I want each of you to understand how the other two live. So, while we're packing today, we'll see each other's houses." It was unusual, to be sure, but Kakashi felt that he could probably work through his whole bag of tricks and short of some sort of live-or-death combat situation, his disciples would be moved not an inch.

"Your house too, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked suspiciously. "'Cause it's not fair otherwise."

Kakashi ruffled his already messy blond hair. "Nope. Not today, kiddo."

Naruto scowled. "I'm not a kid," he defended.

"And I'm not convinced, but just for that, you can take us to your apartment, first."

-X-X-X-

Sasuke had his hands deep in his pockets as Sakura surveyed the cheap apartment complex with polite interest. Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly as he turned the key. "I don't get guests, so it's kinda messy."

As they trooped their way inside the sparsely furnished set of rooms, Sasuke scowled. If Kakashi was going to give them some kind of lecture about how he and Naruto were both orphans, he was out of here. He didn't want to know how his teammate lived and he didn't want his teammates to know how he lived, in that empty house he'd never completely got the bloodstains out of.

They'd wanted to appoint the 'last Uchiha' guardians, but he'd adamantly refused. As he was already in the Academy, they'd finally settled on allowing his sensei to look in on him from time to time. In the weeks after the Massacre, he'd worked his hands raw scrubbing the blood that had seemed to seep into the whole compound.

But whereas Sasuke couldn't stop the cleaning obsession that had started back then, Naruto seemed to be more of the live-and-let-live type. As in, he was fairly certain he saw a mouse take evasive action toward a darkened corner where the drywall had cracked. Empty cups of instant ramen were stacked high on the tiny counter space not occupied by Naruto's microwave and hotplate, waiting either to be taken out on the proper trash day or become a contemporary artwork on commercialism. Glancing into the only other room besides the toilet and bathroom, Naruto's bedroom, he watched as Naruto gingerly stepped around scrolls and books apparently left open on the floor for a reason, because when Sakura hesitantly bent over one to study its contents, Naruto said, "Ah! Don't lose my page, Sakura-chan."

Staring at the ramen poster above Naruto's bed, he retracted his first thought upon entering the apartment, the one that said maybe Naruto, orphaned without an estate to provide for him, had made a virtue out of a necessity. That might be partially true, but he was also fairly certain Naruto genuinely liked ramen. Maybe that display back in the kitchen had been a shrine of sorts. Or not. Sasuke wasn't kidding himself.

Being in Naruto's house made him uncomfortable, so he took up leaning against the wall and made like part of the furniture until they were ready to leave, Naruto's backpack stuffed near to bursting.

"You turn, Sasuke."

It was the first time in years someone other than sensei from the Academy or the Hokage had visited the Uchiha district and he felt the intrusion like someone had stabbed a kunai into his leg. He didn't want them here. So he packed as quickly as possible.

"You don't have any pictures of your family?" Naruto inquired as he looked on empty walls and spotless furniture.

"No," Sasuke bit out, but that was untrue, because he kept a tattered photograph of his parents underneath his pillow. Just in case he ever forgot what that man had taken away.

Sakura seemed more animated here than she had at Naruto's apartment, wandering off deeper into the district when Kakashi turned his back. "You like it here, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi teased.

"It reminds me of home," Sakura said with a faint smile that was neither happy nor unhappy.

That made him raise an eyebrow, because even he noticed that the further a person went into the district, the heavier the sense of desolation. Those houses had more time for the blood to dry in the wood before he could clean them, leaving the whole place as kind of a living museum to the aftermath of a genocide.

Or maybe it was his house she was talking about. Though she wore those oversized shirts all the time, maybe they were better off than he thought. She certainly seemed to have no end of paper bombs.

When it was Sakura's turn, she led them to a modest bakery. As she led them around the back and they deposited their shoes upon the stoop, Sakura turned to them. "I need to greet Ran-oba-san and tell her I'll be leaving."

It turned out she didn't need to search for her, because at that moment a tired looking middle-aged woman whose hair was liberally streaked through with white entered. "Sakura."

His teammate bowed very correctly to her. "I'm home, Ran-oba-san. I apologize for bringing my teammates here without notice."

She might have been a civilian, but the woman's green eyes were sharp as she looked them over.

"I will be going on a mission outside the village," Sakura announced quietly.

"I see. Be safe."

"Yes, thank you."

Kakashi cleared his throat as the woman returned to what Sasuke thought might have been the kitchen and store space to the front of the residence. "Are you always so formal with her, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blinked. There were times when Sasuke wondered if the girl wasn't a little bit dumb, but at least she didn't follow him around like the other girls in the Academy. "Yes," she answered Kakashi after a marked hesitation.

"Where are your parents, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Missing. They were declared dead a long time ago," Sakura answered easily.

None of them made her any gestures of sympathy, because she didn't seem to expect any. She'd declared the fact as easily one might say their birthday or something. Or with even less attachment than that.

For someone who would give just about anything to have his own family back to the way it had been, it pissed him off a little, but all he did was silently follow her to the upstairs.

However, when he got to the room he'd thought was her bedroom, he had to pause on the threshold. Because the room just seemed to exude masculinity. There was not a frill or a flounce in sight, and even if she was a kunoichi, there weren't even any girly accessories laying on the dresser. There wasn't even a proper wardrobe, just that low dresser for storage, a few boxes that looked like they held scrolls, and two bookcases that had their contents neatly arranged. There was a stand in the corner, but the kimono it held was very clearly a man's, deep blue with a design of white cranes. If he tilted his head a little to the side, he could see a design of the Haruno clan's crest woven into the fabric itself.

But Sakura entered the room confidently, pulling a pack from beneath her bed. Packing efficiently enough clothes—which seemed to consist almost entirely of those over-sized shirts and dark clothing, she knelt and reached beneath her bed again.

"Is everything you own in dark colors?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes," Sakura answered.

"They don't have much personality."

"Neither do I," Sakura answered acidly, which was strange, because she seemed so dispassionate about so many things.

Kakashi held up his hands in surrender. "I wasn't criticizing, Sakura-chan!"

She shot him a dirty look as she pulled a case from beneath the bed. "Alright, maybe a little," Kakashi admitted.

"Your room's so weird, Sakura-chan," Naruto commented. "I can't tell you live here at all."

Sasuke agreed. It was an almost aggressive nonpresence. He had known immediately who the room reminded him of. "Do you have a brother?"

"No," Sakura answered. With a soft _click_, the case opened and he saw row upon row of shining kunai. Not the generic, mass-produced kunai he saw so often, but specialized. Narrower, with a flatter blade and less of the distinctive diamond shape, the rings an elongated oval. Her fingers were strangely gentle as she caressed them, strapping on an extra holster on her nondominant leg and filling it with them.

"Can I see one of those?" Kakashi asked. Sakura was almost hesitant in handing it over, but she extended one, hilt first, to the jounin. Sasuke peered out of the corner of his eye at the blade, which had something engraved below the hilt. It was a four character idiomatic phrase: _ichi-go ichi-e._ One time, one meeting, with the meaning that every encounter happens only once.

If that had been engraved on all of them, it only confirmed that they were a custom order, which could be very expensive. Prohibitively so, for a weapon that could be easily lost or damaged. It was the kind of gift that would be given only for promotions to a high rank or some other significant event.

"I prefer _junin toiro _myself," Kakashi commented as he handed the weapon back. Ten people, ten colors, with the meaning that each person's tastes will be different. "Is this your favorite?"

"Not mine," Sakura said quietly, as from another both she pulled a sheaf of paper bombs that went into the extra holster. I like _jaku niku kyo shoku._" With the literal meaning of the weak are meat, the strong eat, Sasuke could be excused for looking at her like she'd grown another head.

"Hmm. What about you, Sasuke?"

"Akuin akka." Evil cause, evil affect. Exactly the kind of karmic retribution he hoped to heap upon the head of that man.

"Naruto?"

"I don't even know what you guys are talking about. Are you almost ready, Sakura-chan?"

-X-X-X-

Sasuke had been giving her strange looks since they'd left Ran-oba-san's house, but that was nothing new. Sakura had been nervous throughout the 'bonding' time, but luckily Shiki-dono hadn't happened to be there when they'd called.

Tuzuna had been just as grouchy after the delay as before, but Sakura took no notice of him. She was smuggled beyond Konoha's walls on a weekly basis, but it still didn't make it any less freeing to be out in the open forest, in contrast to the crowded urban streets of the bustling village. Tuning out Naruto, who sounded as if he was a prince who'd never been out of the palace in his life, Sakura subtly extended her chakra toward the scroll Shiho-nii was sealed in. Tiny reverberations, like pebbles thrown into a well, sparked across her consciousness, but then there was Shiho-nii, full robes billowing in an otherworldly breeze.

He smiled gently at her by didn't otherwise try to communicate when she was so surrounded by people. Reassured by his presence, Sakura focused on the task at hand, which was escorting the bad-natured bridge-builder and remaining unmoved by Naruto's constant need to _talk_.

He wore down slowly, as the day went on, but Sakura, who was walking on the right side of the path, noticed a puddle. When the weather had been balmy and dry for days. Sakura slipped her hand into her holster, sliding off the top paper explosive with the dexterity of a card sharp palming a card and was about to walk over the top of the water and "accidently" drop the explosive, when Kakashi-sensei caught her eye and indicated she should ignore it by the smallest shake of his head.

Sakura sulked a little internally, but she thought Kakashi might well have a lesson in mind. So, when the long chains ripped him into hunks of gory flesh, Sakura was unmoved. Once you had participated in true violence, you never forget the smell of it, the sight of it. Of knowing that human beings were only so much raw meat and the will to move it. Kakashi's substitution wasn't particularly convincing, the thin genjutsu layer over it so transparent that if it was physical she could have read a newspaper through it.

But it convinced the others. She'd never seen a look of horror on someone's face that matched the expression that Naruto wore as he wholeheartedly believed he'd watched his sensei be torn to shreds in front of him. Sakura's hands were already moving, unsealing Shiho-nii, deflecting the weighted chains the two ninja were using.

_Even if they had caught Kakashi-sensei, his body wouldn't have looked like that, _Sakura thought to herself. For one, the chunks had been too neat. Razor wire could accomplish it, but chains would rip, not cut. If his body was pulled into pieces, it would have been likely his entire spine would have likely ripped out in a single hunk, but even the force involved in that would be exponential.

_If Kakashi-sensei didn't want me to attack them before, I guess that means I'm still not supposed to kill them? _Watching warily from a guard position in front of Tazuna, Sakura hesitated while Sasuke used a flashy move to pin the chains with a kunai and perform some sort of aerial spinning kick that caught both the enemy nins in the head. Instinct prompted her that they needed only one, no matter what kind of information Kakashi hoped to gain from them, but she was still rather muzzy on how it would be looked upon if she was to eliminate them.

"Kakashi-sensei, leave better instructions!" she growled.

Luckily, the man himself appeared, otherwise he would certainly have found himself down one ninja from his quota. As Sakura listened intently with half an ear to Tazuna's explanation, she kept an eye on Naruto. Who hadn't even _moved _during the fight.

Sakura frowned. "Are you…all right?" she asked him awkwardly, drawing Sasuke's attention.

Naruto didn't answer her, just stood there, his breathe coming quick and shallow.

"Naruto-san?" No response. "Naruto!" she snapped.

He turned towards the sound of her voice slowly, but his eyes were wide and blank, blue as the sky above them.

_Weak._ She couldn't practically hear Shiki-dono's pronouncement. But Kagami-sama was not so hard. She'd given her a rule to follow: _You must not judge men by the same standards used to judge monsters. _Naruto was kind, gentle as he could be, and occasionally funny. He did not belong to the Haruno house.

"It's alright, Naruto-san," she said in the same voice she might have spoken to a nervous horse with. "The battle's over."

"Hn," the Uchiha sneered. "Scaredy cat."

It was a truly childish taunt and undeserved. Sparring was nothing like actual bloodshed. Many people hesitated in their first battle. And he'd thought he had lost Kakashi-sensei, which actually made it more of a comment on Sasuke than Naruto.

"You will do better next time," Sakura told him.

Naruto took a shaky breath and Sakura watched as blood slid down the back of his hand. "Really?" he asked her.

"Yes. But for now, we need to stop the bleeding."

A/N: No Shiki. And that somehow makes me very sad.


	7. Vision in Red

Disclaimer: If I actually owned this franchise, I might actually have to decide on a single storyline. As I do not, I will continue to revel in the many ways the characters can be set loose in alternate stories.

A/N:…The OCs are multiplying. Which makes sense, because I want the Haruno clan to be convincing as a clan and not simply as a plot device, but really. I blame Shiki. But this should also be the last of the Haruno clan OCs, so there you have it. I promise he really does serve a purpose.

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Seven-

Vision in Red

Three figures had watched the encounter with the Demon Brothers with keen interest, two keeping their chakra cloaked and the third who could have put on an entire kabuki play without most of the other group noticing.

"So that's the jou-chan, eh?" one figure inquired after the group of ninja had continued on their mission.

"Indeed," Shiki replied evenly, cold green eyes still trained in the direction Sakura had disappeared. "It would be remiss of the Haruno clan to have not provided its heir with a retainer, when under village law she can now be prosecuted as an adult."

"And so you called for me," the newcomer said with barely-veiled amusement. Kagami glanced down at him nervously, wondering if this time Shiki truly had gone mad. Or what kind of monster he hoped to make Sakura-chan, if this was the dog he was giving her for a pet. Haruno Jun was a monster even among the Haruno, who were by definition just a little bit soulless.

He was a main house member who had been exiled permanently from his home village at the age of fifteen. That became more remarkable when the village in question was Mizu, which drenched itself in the blood of its own ninja as part of its tradition. He'd been exiled because he had a careless kind of loyalty—if he'd decided in the middle of a mission that he was working for the wrong side, he was as likely to bare his teeth to his teammates as to finish the mission.

But what scared Kagami was not that. Haruno Jun was the only member of the main house to have accomplished what was supposed to be impossible. He had killed the spirit of the branch house member that had inhabited his signature weapon, tekko-kagi, long-clawed gauntlets. Jun had never told anyone how it was accomplished, just smiled that eerie, disconcerting smile of his with eyes blazing in the Thousand Generation Flower.

Shiki had let him live, which had appalled several members of the clan, but the oyakata-sama's word was absolute. A new branch clan member had been assigned to him. Haruno Ai, whose body had become a single bone-white senbon, was presently nestled in the man's long hair.

And was it ever long, longer than even Kagami's own, braided down his back with generous bangs in the front. It was the color of purest, brightest flame, a red-blonde that lied about how much blood the man had shed, just as his pleasant countenance was nothing more than a trap for the unwary.

_You're going to send this man to Sakura-chan? _Kagami thought desperately as she glanced over at Shiki, who was as always unreadable. Pleasantly unreadable. With a shudder she couldn't quite mask, she realized how similar the two might seem, but there were subtle differences. Jun's pleasure seemed warmer, like blood was warm and flowing, while Shiki's smile was the edge of a knife.

Although, as she tried to look at this in her usual humorous light for her own sake, she thought that if Shiki sent Jun to Sakura, it was going to make him look like a fleshmonger. Because Sakura was a growing girl and Jun was attractive, like all Haruno men were (and Haruno women, she thought smugly). He also went about half-dressed.

Besides billowy, samurai-esque hakama in a somber shade of black and wooden sandals, she had never seen Jun wear another to cover up his admittedly second-, third-, and fourth-glance worthy physique. But on his back, carved into his very skin, was a twisted tree. Perhaps that was the only part of him that was honest, because for all his soft voice and gentle actions, he was a man who refused to use shuriken or senbon not because he was unskilled with them, but because the kill was not close or intimate enough.

But Kagami kept her silence. Because, in her heart of hearts, she feared Haruno Jun, more than she loved Sakura-chan, for all her brightness and smothered monstrosity. But she still feared Shiki more. _What in hell is that man thinking? _

"You will shadow Sakura. If you find yourself in a position to make yourself useful to her, observe only. Your primary responsibility will to be to ensure she does not accidentally kill one of her teammates. It is desirable, for the moment, that she remains in Konoha."

"Hai, oyakata-sama," Jun replied cheerfully. "Should I introduce myself to jou-chan, or would you prefer I remain anonymous to her?"

"Present yourself to her. From now on, your life rests at her pleasure. Remember that."

-X-X-X-

_Where you kill one, two more will show up for his funeral. _Sakura thought that was what the country folk said about flies, but Kagami-sama had once told her that about shinobi.

_Like fuckin' vultures_, had been her other bit of wisdom. _Especially when it comes down to two things. Money and loyalty. If enough of either is involved, watch your back, your front, and the earth beneath your feet, because as soon as you think you've got them beat, they'll come at you. _

So Sakura kept her eyes open, her ears sharp, and that strange sixth sense that had been built through years of combat aware of her surroundings. It looked as if Naruto-san was doing much the same thing, except, rather than combat training, he'd borrowed his techniques from a B-rate spy movie, shadowing his eyes with his hands and darting suspicious looks into the bushes that lined the road.

If Sasuke-san was at all concerned about another encounter, he was doing his best to conceal it, but there was a certain edge to his movements that was only relaxed fractionally as Naruto-san kept reacting to squirrels rustling the brush. Only Kakashi-sensei seemed unconcerned, but that was his right, she supposed.

Shiki-dono had hardly been upset when his house had risen in rebellion. How could she respect a sensei who reacted badly to a few unplanned attacks?

Shiho-nii was silent at her side. Which made Sakura want to fidget. It didn't seem right not to talk to him just because there were others who couldn't see him, but Shiki-dono had made it very clear she was not to do it and Shiho-nii had told her himself it was for the best. To her mind it just seemed unfair, but because of the forces that had shaped that mind, she did not think it was unfair because of the clan system but rather that it was unfair that the others did not have Haruno blood.

_All other blood is inferior. _

It was only when Naruto threw a kunai at the next rustle that she was distracted, because he burst through the shrubs after his weapon like he expected to pounce on an enemy then and there. And immediately started wailing when it turned out to be only a rabbit.

"Rabbits only have white fur in the winter, or if they're domesticated," Shiho-nii murmured. "And we're too far from any village for that. It didn't run away when it heard us approach, either."

_Jutsu. _The answer was obviously to Sakura and she curled her hand more steadily around Shiho-nii's scroll. She didn't want to summon him yet, in order to use surprise most effectively. Sakura had never once regretted the form Shiho-nii had taken, but she had learned to work around its weaknesses, one of which was that it was regrettably hard to surprise an enemy with a strike from a weapon taller than you were.

Not impossible. Just hard.

As she discovered when a sword, shorter than Shiho-nii but much broader, just about severed her teammates' heads from their necks. As soon as Sakura had detected the tiny spike in killing intent that had proceeded the attack, she'd leapt into the trees for a better look, trusting Kakashi-sensei to protect the client, as that was the central imperative of the mission.

With the gennin out of the way, he would be more capable of doing just that, because unless they were attacking in force, unskilled allies were simply another thing to get in the way.

And though Sakura knew few chunnin were as skilled as she was, her first instinct was not to aid in protecting their charge, as might another Konoha ninja, but to eliminate the threat as swiftly as possible.

But she was also skilled enough to immediately understand that this was one battle she might not be able to win easily or at all. Zabuza Mamochi had made the bingo books for years and she'd known he'd gone rogue a few years ago, but never would she have expected her first mission for Konoha to put her up against someone who'd regularly earned a "Kill on Sight" tag from neighboring villages.

Zabuza chuckled down below as Sakura did her best to become one with the branch she was perched on, like those little brown stick bugs Tsubasa-sensei had once forced her to watch for hours upon hours. _Just a really big __Phobaeticus chain_, she pretended, slowly her breathing and changing her movement so she wouldn't be the only rigid object on a tree that swayed and moved with the breeze, not daring to use a jutsu to camouflage her distinctive coloring. "Looks like one of your followers has already broke and run," the foreign-nin challenged her sensei.

Sakura internally bristled but kept up her self-appointed task. Missing-nin traveled alone, sure, but more often than not they traveled in pairs. Everyone had to sleep sometime and it was a key vulnerable point that inconvenient hunter-nin liked to strike during. Hence, partners.

Shiho-nii had moved away from her, his form phasing cloudlike through the dense foliage of the canopy. His range was somewhat limited, anchored as he was to his physical body, but it was more than enough for him to survey the forest rimming the lake. It was said, jokingly, that the range of a branch clan member was exactly, within so many centimeters, the distance from one end of the clan compound to the other.

Sakura watched the farce of a fight that went on below with a dispassion that alerted her to the fact that her kekkei genkai was already in the budding stage and was dangerously close to erupting in the first flower.

Shiho-nii coalesced at her side. "Two watchers. One dressed like a hunter-nin from Mizu, but don't trust it. A real hunter-nin from that kami-forsaken village would have already interfered. He or she wouldn't take the chance of Konoha-nin learning anything valuable from a high-level rogue like Zabuzi. The other is from the Haruno. He waved hello." His voice was stiff at the last words and Sakura looked over at him in question.

"I'll tell you about him later. For now, you need to decide what action to take about the watcher."

Sakura's eyes narrowed and she could feel the first petals begin to form in her eyes, little points protruding from the shrinking black of her iris that expanded, filling with green. There were only three, one at the top and one to either side of the bottom, splitting the space into three equal sections, but she knew even these petals were three too many.

There was just so _much _bloodlust and killing intent radiating upward towards her perch. Sakura didn't yet have the control not to respond to it.

"Control it, Sakura," Shiho-nii urged her and she detected a hint of panic in his voice. But she didn't react to it, because the First Flower dulled the emotional connection. But it did not break it, which is what it had done for those people down in the clearing. They might have been less than strangers or not there at all for all the concern Sakura had. They were only names she knew—Kakashi in her head bore no more weight than Zabuza.

Slowly, carefully, moving only when the wind blew and the ninja below clashed, Sakura closed in on her opponent in a curved pattern that brought her up behind the enemy's position. The androgynous figure was male to her eyes, but young. Skilled, though, if the development of his chakra coils was anything to go by.

But it wouldn't matter. Silently unfurling Shiho-nii's scroll, Sakura slammed her chakra through the paper, making the enormous guan dao materialize even as she was leaping forward, still as silent as a whisper. The other shinobi verified her estimation of his skill as he twisted out of the way, catching the blade of her weapon in his shoulder instead of in his heart.

Bearing down on Shiho-nii, she drove the weapon in even more deeply, sending them both tumbling out of the tree. Mid-air, the boy managed to writhe free of her blade and landed lightly on his feet, flipping backwards to put more space between them. Sakura landed almost fully crouched, Shiho-nii held parallel to the ground.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted in surprise.

"There was someone watching in the trees, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura told her recently freed instructor as she watched the other ninja's movements with predatory fascination. "I think he belongs to Zabuza-san."

"Well, let's hope he does," the silver-haired nin said wryly. "Because otherwise you've stabbed a Mizu hunter-nin and started an inter-village incident."

Sakura didn't even blink. "If he is a Mizu-nin, he is after Zabuza-san. If he dies, the blame will be laid at his feet. His death will not matter either way," she said, her voice smooth with dispassion.

It shocked a rough chuckle from Zabuza. "Seems I was wrong Kakashi. Looks like there's still a monster or two to be found in Konoha after all. Oi, Haku, don't just stand there and bleed. Take care of the girl."

Her opponent answered readily, "Hai, Zabuza-sama," but there was no accompanying surge of killing intent to tell her he was serious.

She could almost hear Kakashi-sensei's displeasure from here. "Sasuke, Naruto, protect the bridge builder," he commanded.

Sasuke's answer was a grunt of displeasure, but Naruto was more vocal. "What about Sakura-chan?"

Zabuza didn't give their instructor time to answer, instead drawing the fight back out onto the lake.

Sakura faced her opponent squarely. "I'm sorry," her opponent apologized as he drew a handful of senbon with his good hand.

She tilted her head to the side as she studied the movement and analyzed his choice of weapon. "I'm not."

And then they clashed, but Haku moved quickly outside the range of her weapon, throwing his senbon with pinpoint accuracy, but she spun Shiho-nii in front of her body, knocking the weapons easily off course.

Without irritation and still with no killing intent to speak of, the ninja in front of her made a series of one-handed handsigns.

"What?!" Shiho-nii gasped from above her. "Watch out," he warned her, "it has to be a kekkei genkai!"

It was. Smooth icy mirrors condensed out of the air, forming a domelike shell around her. Trapping her inside, yes, but so was her opponent. Whose gaze was like a fly, irritating but not deadly. It was unfocused, somehow, timid. And she knew then he didn't really want to kill her.

But Sakura had no such reservations about him. She defended herself adroitly as she studied this icy cage, but even she could not prevent the stray senbon or two that made it past her highly trained senses. If he had been using kunai or shuriken, it would have been more of a concern, because he could have cut her to ribbons and left her to bleed to death.

Senbon, however, were not deadly unless aimed in key areas—a person's heart, for example, but not veins or arteries, unless the poor fool pulled them out—or when they were poisoned.

Haku was both fast and accurate enough to kill her with his senbon if she gave him an opening, but Sakura had grown up with people trying much harder to kill her than his half-hearted little attacks. In fact, she would say he was mostly preventing her from joining the other fight going on in and on the lake between the two jounin.

Just to test her theory, Sakura knocked another batch of senbon from the sky, then smashed the butt of Shiho-nii's shaft through one of his ice-mirrors, shattering it. It reformed quickly, but before it was perfect, she used the flat of the blade like an extra-long baseball bat, cracking the ones to either side. Moving quickly, she kept breaking the mirrors and dodging senbon, forcing her opponent to expend his energy until his movement slowed enough she thought she might be able to match it.

Having gone into the fight with the First Flower in bloom, her eyes had been keen enough to perceive his movements. Not perfectly. She wouldn't have been able to use something as accuracy dependant as senbon on him, for certain, but she could have managed to hack off an arm or a leg or a head, if her body had been fast enough.

But with this kekkei genkai, his speed far exceeded her capacity to match his at full strength. However, now—"Shiho Specialty: Typhoon"—and every one of his pretty mirrors shattered. Except for one. The one she'd caught the flicker of movement at. And she was waiting when he emerged, flaring her killing intent dark and bright. The tip of Shiho-nii's blade hesitated only briefly at Haku's sternum, despite the fact that the guan dao was not designed as a stabbing weapon. It was meant to cut and cut it did as she forced it through until she encountered resistance again at his spine.

If they had not been gracefully balance in midair, like two birds of prey caught on camera, the leverage she applied next might have split open his belly like an overripe fruit. As it was, the movement threw Haku to the ground with a dull thump, all the animation gone and reducing him to what humans were in reality—just so much meat, flopping around because of electrical signals.

As the mirrors she'd shattered continued to fall to the ground, her eyes were trained on the single whole mirror in the array as it too cracked and slowly disintegrated.

The noise must have attracted the attention of the others, because she heard the disbelief in Zabuza's voice as he murmured, "Haku…"

But now that her own battle was finished, Sakura was otherwise occupied. Shiho-nii's ministrations drowned out the background chatter. Gathering her into arms that didn't exist, he covered her eyes with hands that she could see through, if she tried.

"Hush now," Shiho-nii murmured. "The battle's over," he soothed. "Come back from the edge, Sakura. Come back to me. I'm right there, in your hands. Just…feel me there."

And she did. Shiho-nii was smooth and warm, hard and firm. An unbreakable anchor to this world. She could almost feel his emotion, as if someone was telling her firmly that she was loved, that she would never be abandoned, would never be alone. To hurt or be frightened was all right, in front of this one person. This precious person.

She could not leave Shiho-nii and she could not disappoint Shiki-dono. With that in mind, she pulled back from that craggy darkness in her mind, that metaphorical ledge she'd plunged off as the petals began to unfurl.

To find that her teammates were watching her shakily, Naruto looking a little ill, and that Zabuza was no longer there.

"Are you alright, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, Naruto-san," she replied politely. "He was using senbon. I don't think he was really trying to kill me," she said thoughtfully and glanced back at the body. Which, of course, drew their gazes to it.

"Heh-heh, but I guess you got him, Sakura-chan!" Naruto tried for a good display of bravado, but the way his voice faltered made it clear just how shaken he was by the death of her opponent.

Striding over to her fallen opponent, Sakura laid Shiho-nii carefully on the ground, then removed Haku's mask. The face beneath was just as prettily androgynous as the rest of his body, the dark brunette hair now splayed over the ground and the red flecking his lips looking bright against pale lips.

And, for the first time, Sakura felt a strange warmth low in her abdomen, looking at those blood-flecked lips and those clear, clear eyes. As the heat flowed through her, she thought she might be blushing, so she turned her face so her teammates couldn't see.

If Shiho-nii saw, he didn't say anything. Sakura regulated her breathing and waited until she was certain the blush had faded before she looked at the dead body again, this time ghosting her hand over her face so she could close his eyes. His eyelashes were soft and fine against the firm flesh of her hand. She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from shivering.

Sakura was not touched and did not touch in anything but violence, not for many years now. And even though violence had brought Haku beneath her hand, it was not violence that now motivated this action. Which made it strange and unusual to her. Novel.

_What might it be like to touch like that all the time? _she thought wistfully as she reached over and picked up Shiho-nii, moving to seal him back in his scroll. That done, she looked over at her teammates again.

She curiously stared at Kakashi's Sharingan eye. It was one thing to see it in pictures, but in real life, the red was uncanny. But there was a certain glazed look to both his eyes. "Well, Sakura-chan…" he began, but his legs gaze way and the famed Copy-nin toppled to the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled and even Sasuke flinched forward, looking like he wanted to run to him. Sakura nodded to him and Sasuke advanced forward, checking his pulse. 

"He's alive. It must be chakra exhaustion," the young Uchiha pronounced. "He used the Sharingan, but he's not an Uchiha. It probably was an extreme strain on his body."

Sakura nodded, filing the information away for further use. "So, we need to deliver Tazuna-san safely to his house and get Kakashi-sensei there without disturbing him…" she muttered, then glared in the direction of the trees. Tazuna-san was also standing in that direction and he flinched.

"You," she barked in the direction of the trees, "who are you?"

With a rustle, a man dropped out of the tree, landing with his hand on Tazuna's shoulder. The older man abruptly screamed, a high-pitched girlish shriek of terror and surprise. Naruto and Sasuke spun to face this new threat.

The new shinobi held up his empty hands with a smile. "No need to sic your teammates on me, jou-chan."

Sakura wondered how to phrase her question without giving away too much. Shiki had commanded that she keep parts of her Haruno heritage a secret, but here was a clan member. How did she interpret this?

The shinobi who smiled so kindly made no move to aid her in her decision. "You were sent by him?" she asked at last.

Her two teammates leaned forward, eager for the information.

"Oh, yes, _he_ sent me. Offers his greetings and all that." The man moved closer, but saying that didn't really describe how his body seemed to roil forward, lean muscles moving beneath skin, until he towered over her. He was tall, a little broader across the shoulder than Shiho-nii, with long hair. He had the Haruno eyes, green, but there was something strange about the pupil, as if his kekkei genkai's petals never truly retracted fully. He swiftly crouched in front of her until his eyes were on a perfect level with hers. Sakura tensed when he moved forward, but it was only to whisper in her ear. "I'm Jun, jou-chan. Shiki-sama says I'm to tell you I belong to you now."

Sakura's eyes widened. She knew who Haruno Jun was. There was no one in the clan who _didn't_. At her side, Shiho-nii's expression mirrored her. "Shiki-sama…," Shiho-nii growled.

Jun drew back, his smile gentler than ever. "Now, you needed me for something, jou-chan? Or were you just calling me out?"

Shiki-dono had likely forbidden him to interfere in combat situations. As heir, she lived and died alone in battle. That was the way of things, the only way to prove to the clan she was strong enough to lead them. Sakura did not mind, because she always had Shiho-nii by her side, but it would be useful having another adult with Kakashi-sensei unconscious. "Can you carry Kakashi-sensei back to Tazuna-san's dwelling?" she asked bluntly.

"Sakura, do you know this man?" Sasuke asked sharply.

"I know of this man," she told him honestly, her eyes never leaving Jun.

"And do you trust him?" he pressed. While she'd been occupied, he'd managed to put himself between the Haruno and Kakashi's body.

"To carry Kakashi-sensei's body for us while we protect our client? Yes."

It wasn't really an answer and she only discovered how thrown Sasuke had been by this turn of events when he caved without complaint.

Sakura turned to their client and gave him a very proper bow. "I'm terribly sorry you had to see this scene. If you would guide us to your house now?"

Tazuna glanced at the body of the young boy. She could almost read his thoughts. Haku couldn't have been much older than them and he'd thought of them as children too, when he first saw them.

"I will take his body," Sakura told him softly. "Is there a crematorium in your village where I can make arrangements?"

Tazuna nodded, for once serious and very sober. "Can't have burials on an island like this without one. Dead bodies pop up out of the ground in flood season and we can't spare the space for mausoleums."

Riffling through her pack, which she'd discarded as soon as the fight began, Sakura pulled out a spare groundsheet and wrapped Haku carefully in it, then gathered him carefully in her arms like a new bride. She nodded to Sasuke, who stepped out of the way, so Jun could throw Kakashi-sensei over one shoulder.

Instinctively, the two gennin with free hands moved to flank their charge. Then, moving as a single unit once again, they made their slow way to the house of the bridge builder.

A/N: Shiho Specialty: Typhoon is a weapons-based jutsu. Concentrating solely on speed, depending on the weight of the weapon for destructive power, Sakura moves so fast she creates the illusion of striking out in a stabbing movement in all directions at once.

Next chapter, you'll get to see the reactions of Naruto and Sasuke to the fight.


	8. Put On My Blue Ninja Shoes

Disclaimer: Standard.

A/N: Yep, short and brutal battle against Haku. I don't think the kind of drawn-out, repetitive battles we see a lot of in the anime are really suitable for writing. And, as Haku's battle in canon was against what were really untested gennin, I felt that matching him against First Flower-Sakura would result in a decisive battle. Because Haku just lacks that instinct to kill. Thanks to everyone for your wonderful reviews!

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Eight-

Put On My Blue Ninja Shoes

Sasuke's hands wouldn't stop shaking. He was glad that Naruto, loud idiot that he was, had decided to accompany Tazuna-san into town, leaving him alone in his vigil. Kakashi-sensei's breathing was deep and even, but he was still unresponsive.

"Dammit," Sasuke cursed under his breath, "Dammit!" The faintest hint of tears edged his words, because he was alone. _If I can't even stand against that, how can I face that man?_ he thought furiously.

The dobe had been the one cowering against those other Mizu-nin, but it had been Sasuke who had faltered at the much larger obstacle of Zabuza. He'd eventually pushed through his fear to attack, but the missing-nin had mocked him out loud, letting the others know of his fear. Even Sakura, who he'd thought had run off after the swordsman's first attack.

_Sakura… _The trembling in his hands grew so bad he had to fist them on his thighs to keep them still. _Even It—that man, he hadn't looked like that. Not until _that _day. _The memories were buried deep, but they were there. It was unnatural, the calm with which she killed.

He'd felt it a few times in practice, a nagging feeling that Sakura might not care if those tags of hers really did cause more than a few burns.

And then when she'd killed that boy, she'd almost _fondled_ the body. It was unnatural. It was disgusting. And he was envious.

"Sasuke-san." Sasuke had to lock his expression down tight to keep from letting out an undignified yelp of surprise or jumping to his feet at the sound of Sakura's carefully modulated voice.

She came and settled down near him, sitting something on the floor with the faintest sound of tinkling metal. He glanced over unobtrusively and saw that it was a little pile of senbon, some with drying blood on them. "Where did you get those?" he asked, schooling his voice into his characteristic disinterest.

"Jun pulled them out for me," she said, flushing for some odd reason. Her voice was small as she continued, "I didn't think about them when the battle was over."

Sasuke grunted his understanding. Silence descended between them, uncomfortable for him. He would like to be alone, but he couldn't make himself leave Kakashi. Not until he found out how he had gotten that eye. Until he knew how he was connected to his family.

"You don't like to watch people die, do you, Sasuke-san?" Perhaps the judgment he heard in her voice wasn't really there, but for Sasuke, Sakura might as well have lanced open a boil with a red-hot needle.

"I don't have a problem with it," he said gruffly.

Green eyes studied him curiously. "I don't think it's a bad thing," she offered tentatively. "Most people don't like to kill or watch people die, do they? Even ninjas." She glanced down at her lap and flexed her hands in it, like she was trying to remind him that those hands had killed recently. Sakura shuffled around on her knees until she was facing him. "I might be envious of you, Sasuke-san," she pronounced.

He couldn't help the question that formed on his lips. "Why?"

"Because you don't have to kill to win."

Sasuke snorted. "That's just because I'm _weak_," he said acidly.

Sakura blinked. "Why would you say that?"

Sasuke's jaw clamped shut as if it had been wired in place. If she hadn't noticed the way his hands had shook and how sweat had beaded on his forehead, he was not going to point it out.

Sakura tilted her head, the action making the faint wisps of pink hair that had escaped her braid fall into her face. "If you don't want to kill people, then don't," she offered.

"I'm a _shinobi_," he growled.

Sakura nodded, one narrow hand reaching up to brush back the hair. "I know," she said. "But there are lots of ninja jobs that don't focus on the killing. You like protecting people, don't you?"

Sasuke scowled. She was making big assumptions about his character. So what if his childhood dream had been to join the Military Police? To stand beside his father as he helped protect the citizens of Konohagakure? That dream had been ripped to shreds in a single blood-spattered night. Now he couldn't afford to focus on anything but the killing. "That's none of your business," he hissed.

But Sakura didn't react to his anger. Had, in fact, never reacted to his coldness and the way she reacted to Naruto's friendliness had something stiff and artificial to it as well. "Why does watching people die bother you?"

Sasuke's head jerked over to face her. She couldn't have just asked that. He had to have heard wrong. It had stung a bit when she had pointed it out to his face that he didn't like watching people die, but he knew it wasn't unusual for a gennin to react badly to his first kill. He'd been fine with the violence, but watching someone actually die in front of him had triggered flashbacks to his own personal horror. But it wasn't just him.

It was human instinct to shy away from death, both seeing it and causing it. It was why they went through so many years of emotional conditioning before they were ever allowed on a live mission. "Doesn't it bother you?" he asked defensively.

Sakura shook her head.

They were silent again for a while. Sasuke was unsettled by the girl, but he refused to show it.

"When our team was first put together, you said there was a man you would kill. I know you haven't killed before now, so he must have done something terrible to make you feel that way," Sakura said awkwardly. "May I ask what offense he committed against you?"

He wondered at her suddenly formal language, but it didn't change his answer. "It's none of your business."

Silence.

"If I may be so bold, Sasuke-san, I think you should give up on your dream."

Sasuke jolted like he'd been struck.

Her next words tumbled into each other, like she was nervous. "It's only just—you're better suited for other things, Uchiha-san. Sh—A man I respect very much said that we can change everything about our lives, but we cannot change our natures. A kind man will be a kind man, no matter what brutality he endures, while a cruel man on a throne can only be a tyrant. Sasuke-san, you seem like the kind of person who needs something to protect."

Sasuke's voice was very cold. "Are you insinuating that I'm too weak to kill that man?" he snarled.

"Well, I haven't actually met _that man_, so I could not say, Sasuke-san. I was only trying to advise you. Gomen, I was just told…it was something done among friends. I'm sorry for the presumption," she apologized.

"And you think you're suited to killing?" he challenged, rather than falling back into his usual silence. He was angry, in part because everything she said was true.

Her lips twitched, then spread into the most genuine smile he'd ever seen the girl wear. "You don't need to worry about me, Sasuke-san."

He wanted to protest that he wasn't, but he bit down on the words, having already said more than he intended. "Hn."

Sakura glanced over at Kakashi-sensei. "I know it probably wouldn't make him wake up any quicker, but it would be nice if we had someone who knew something about medicine, to make sure chakra exhaustion really is the only thing wrong."

Sasuke made a noise of agreement. "You…you're fine?" he asked gruffly after a moment.

"Yes, they were just senbon," Sakura said dismissively.

Senbon or not, most of the girls he knew would be whining about their injuries. It only confirmed his earlier impression—Sakura was unlike anyone else he'd ever known, but there were eerie resemblances to _him_.

-X-X-X-

Naruto stole glances at Sakura-chan across Tsunami's dinner table, regarding her thoughtfully as he chewed his rice.

"Oi," he said, shifting his attention to Sasuke, "bastard, any clue when Kakashi-sensei will wake up?"

Sasuke scowled. "No," he said shortly.

Tsunami, Tazuni's daughter and their hostess, looked on them with an expression of sympathy. "I'm sure he'll wake up soon," she said with forced brightness.

Naruto forced himself to perk up. "You bet!" he assured the tired-looking woman with a grin. "Kakashi-sensei's awesome!"

"Dobe," Sasuke snapped, "what does a person being awesome have to do with recovering from chakra exhaustion?"

"Wow, chill, teme," Naruto said. He waved his chopsticks around as he spoke, prodding the air for emphasis. "It _means,_" he stressed, "there's no way that'll take him long to get up and going again! And then he can go take care of sword dude!"

"Everything is very simple in your life, isn't it?" Sasuke asked dryly.

"Sure! Simple is best, after all. Like this rice, Tsunami-chan. It's delicious!" he enthused.

Sure, what he'd seen yesterday had been a little strange, but Sakura-chan was still a nice person. Naruto had an instinct, part trained, part inborn, about when people were dangerous. Sakura-chan was a lot like Kakashi-sensei. They had the potential to be downright _terrifying_, but most the time they were just a kinda quiet girl and a pervert who couldn't arrive at his own funeral on time.

Unlike Sasuke, Naruto was nothing if not adaptable.

-X-X-X-

Kakashi's eyelids felt heavy as he finally forced himself back to consciousness. Like a bad morning after trying to outdrink Gai at a bar, the light in the airy, open room he could himself in pricked at his retinas and his mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

And, of course, who should be waiting for him to wake up but the _loudest_ of his disciples. "Hey, hey!" Naruto yelled in a voice that was entirely unnecessary, "Kakashi-sensei's waking up!"

Before he could blink properly, Sakura and Sasuke were flanking the blond.

Kakashi cleared his throat roughly. "Well—," he began but his throat caught. He sighed. Any pithy remark he might have made had effectively lost its impact. "A drink?" he rasped with a raised brow.

Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who disappeared to fetch it. Kakashi deliberately didn't thank him when he handed it over.

"So what now, sensei?" Naruto inquired before he'd even taken a proper sip.

"We watch out for Zabuza while Tazuna finishes the bridge, dobe," Sasuke sniped.

"We eliminate Gato," Sakura said at the same moment.

Kakashi winced. "Ah, Sakura-chan, that might be a little outside the scope of our mission. Just because he is a _possible _threat to our target doesn't justify attacking him. Unless he confronts Tazuna directly, we can't act against him." Sasuke threw the girl a superior glance.

Those blank green eyes told him she didn't see the logic and Kakashi resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Sakura-chan, no matter what Tazuna said or what Gato is actually doing, he's still a business man, a civilian. Without the proper orders, killing him is a civil crime, which means your case will be tried by civilians, not your superiors from Konoha. If you exceed the bounds of your mission too much, then you can be tried for excessive use of deadly force in Konoha anyway," he explained to her. When her expression cleared, he was reassured.

This mission wasn't the time or place for it, but when they returned to the village, there were some questions he intended to ask Sakura's guardian. He had between now and then to come up with a tactful way to ask, "What in kami's name have you done to this child?"

He had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

-X-X-X-

It took Kakashi-sensei until almost noon to rise, but once they'd eaten, he'd limped on the crutches Tsunami-san had found for him into a clearing in the forest.

The look in his one visible eye was serious when he addressed them. "I injured Zabuzi badly before he escaped," he said flatly. "It might take him about a week to get back to full strength. Unfortunately, the same can be said about me. The good thing is Zabuza doesn't know that, so the chances that he'll attack are low. However, there is a risk. So the three of you will be accompanying Tazuna when he goes to work on his bridge. Beyond that, your every waking moment will be spent training." And there was a certain cheerful glee in his voice as he said the last sentence.

"Now, let's see how much you know."

Naruto's knowledge of jutsu turned out to be fearsomely instinctive. Sakura had felt a little shaken that a concept so basic as chakra had to be explained to him, but she'd _seen _what he could do with it. If a musician could learn music by ear, was it really so bad that he couldn't read a single note? Sakura couldn't decide.

At first, when Kakashi-sensei had explained the exercise, she had been tempted to pretend, just a little, that she hadn't had the chakra control necessary for it since she'd started training as a ninja. It wasn't something she was particularly proud of. After all, she hadn't had to struggle to achieve it or train long hours to understand it, so it was just the way things were. Like being able to walk or breathe.

It was how all of her Haruno trainers treated it, like it was nothing more than expected, and they'd focused on other areas of her training instead. But from the first moment she watched both of her teammates hit the ground roughly, she realized it wasn't something one could take for granted.

She hadn't been totally oblivious to the struggles of the others in the Academy, but most of them also came from ninja clans, which meant that they had some basic training before they ever stepped foot inside the classroom. This drove it home.

But if they all wanted to improve, as Tsubasa-sensei might say, _The first step was being honest about your abilities. _So Sakura strode up the tree like it was a pleasant trail through a meadow.

Sakura had wilted a bit when Kakashi-sensei had sighed. And then he'd used it as a taunt. "Looks like the only girl on the team has got it before either of you."

She wanted to point out that when it came to fine control, it was a documented fact that kunoichi were more talented than shinobi, but had shallower reserve pools when compared to a shinobi of the same age, training, and general background. It was a biological fact, like having a smaller lung capacity or more difficulty developing muscles. But she didn't.

Training with people like Shiki-dono made outright contradicting or correcting a teacher a feat in bravery and foolhardiness. And while Sakura _knew_ Kakashi-sensei wasn't a Haruno, that didn't stop that instinct from kicking in.

So, she was set to run figure eights around a set of trees, a pair of weights Kakashi-sensei "just happened" to have on him clutched in her fingers. Again and again, faster and faster, until she was using the trees like springboards to help propel her across the gap, duck around the trunk, and then back again until she was almost dizzy with the movement and her lungs burned.

She had just enough air to laugh, brightly, gaily.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto came back to the house that night, so Sakura bedded down alone in the spare room. Kakashi-sensei, despite needing the rest, was out there somewhere watching them unobtrusively, she'd bet.

When she woke, she sensed someone in the room with her. Jun. Sakura peered blearily at the man who sat with one knee drawn up to his chest, playing with something between his fingers. "G'morning," she greeted.

"Morning, jou-chan. Decided to meet your teacher today," he told her.

"And?" she asked, sitting up.

A red-blonde brow rose. "I haven't met him yet. I'm waiting for you to give permission."

Sakura considered. Kakashi-sensei was a ninja of considerable skill. She'd give it perhaps a day or two more, with Jun's talent, but killing intent or not, Kakashi-sensei would notice something strange. And it might be…_safer_ for the others if Kakashi-sensei knew Jun was there.

"Where did you disappear to, after we left the crematorium?" she asked curiously as she set aside her blankets.

"Oh, here and there. Your charge really is an impressive bridge-builder," he confided.

Sakura nodded, accepting the far from complete explanation. "Do you know if either of my teammates came back yet?"

"They're still eating breakfast, I believe. But if you don't hurry, you might miss them."

There wasn't much to do in the way of getting ready. She changed clothes quickly, splashed some water on her face, then scampered out into the house. Everyone was already eating by the time she got to the table.

"You're late!" Naruto accused.

Sakura nodded. "Did you get to the top of the tree?" she inquired as Tsunami-san served her portion of the fish and rice.

A black look stole across the faces of both of her teammates and they began to eat faster. Sakura blinked. _Guess I shouldn't have asked. _

-X-X-X-

Kakashi was aware of someone approaching as he sat alone on the porch. Neither of the boys had been happy when told to stop their training, but they'd grudgingly accompanied Tazuna into town. Knowing it wasn't Tsunami or the boy, Inari, the one that had such a fit at the breakfast table this morning, he glanced up over the pages of his novel.

A half-clothed man with long, braided hair settled against the post on the other side of the stairs. He was perhaps a little younger than Kakashi, with the smoothly muscled build common to shinobi. Dangling teardrop earrings drew his attention for a moment, but the rest of what little he was wearing was remarkably plain, not revealing any allegiances.

He smiled at Kakashi like they were old friends. "I'm Haruno Jun. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kakashi-san." He had a soft, pleasant speaking voice that Kakashi would bet had talked many a woman into doing things she wasn't sure she wanted.

"A relation, I assume, to Haruno Sakura," Kakashi said dryly. _And I seem to have seen you somewhere else, too… _

"Yes. Distant cousins."

"Ah. And why are you here?"

"Because you have questions about jou-chan."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the man. "Are you here to answer those questions or to stop me from asking them?"

Jun held up his empty hands with a laugh. "No need to be so aggressive, Kakashi-san. If it doesn't involve clan business, I'll answer any of your questions."

"Oh? Then maybe you won't mind telling me who trained Sakura?"

"Oh, lots of people had a hand in jou-chan. But telling you who, that might be a problem. You Konoha-nin have the strangest ideas about what constitutes conspiring with an enemy nation. Just know that every single teacher Sakura had before she came to you, their loyalty was to the clan. And only the clan."

Kakashi intentionally took on a semblance of relaxation. "And Sakura?"

"Jou-chan doesn't have to be loyal to the clan." Jun's warm smile became eerie for a moment as his eyes became shadowed half-moons. "One day, jou-chan will become the clan." 

Kakashi turned over that cryptic statement in his head. As he did so, he suddenly made the connection he'd been missing before. Haruno Jun had featured prominently in the bingo books about five or six years ago, but then he'd disappeared. And he hadn't been calling himself a Haruno then. He'd been best known by his nickname. Kurutta-inu. Insane dog. He'd had a taste for gore and there'd been rumors of cannibalism at the time.

And this person wanted to associate himself with his student?

"Does Sakura know you're here?"

Jun nodded, playing idly with one of his earrings, which appeared to be made out of some green gemstone, wrapped in gold wire. "I carried you to Tazuna's house."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed again. "You were at the fight?" _And you didn't interfere?_

"Yes. But I'm not allowed to interfere in jou-chan's fights. It's not healthy, so I wouldn't recommend it for your students, either."

"So you're here to…observe Sakura?" Kakashi asked. That wasn't so unusual among clans, but until this conversation, he hadn't been aware there was a Haruno clan to interfere like that.

"I'll make myself useful to her," Jun promised. And then his aspect turned teasing. "But I'll be of most use to her when she gets just a little bit older and wants to know what to do with that heat from a kill."

-X-X-X-

Kakashi-sensei had met Jun. That was the only reason she could think of that he would assign her to walking those figure eights she'd run yesterday on her hands, attempting to balance wooden bowls filled with wet river sand on her feet.

-X-X-X-

For all their training, Kakashi-sensei had the battle with Zabuza-san well in hand. Not that she could see much of the battle, what with the fog, but it only distorted and muffled her hearing a little bit. She'd already unsealed Shiho-nii, taking the front position in their triangular formation in case she needed to block a strike from Zabuza-san.

Shiho-nii was busy frowning over her head. "I think there's something moving in the mist on the end of the bridge," he informed her.

Sakura frowned. She had thought Haku was Zabuza's only associate, but Naruto had defeated a couple of samurai on his way to the bridge after he'd woken late this morning after _finally _making his way to the top of his tree. Was Gato making a move? Sending support for his hired assassin?

In a barely-there movement, she twitched her head towards the end of the bridge, indicating that Shiho-nii should check it out. He glanced over at the battle between the two jounin, then towards the end of the bridge. Loose robes flowing, she couldn't help but notice that the fog only enhanced his handsome, ethereal features as he strode off.

"Be ready," she warned her teammates, "something else might be coming."

"What is it?" Naruto asked anxiously.

Sasuke was quicker on his mental feet. "Gato," he spat.

"Now would be a perfect time for him to strike, while the strongest member of our team is otherwise occupied," Sakura murmured. _Clever. But not clever enough, if he thinks his thugs can really measure up against shinobi. Even gennin could take a half-wit with a sword. _

But she was worried about her teammates. Gato had spent money on quality talent in Zabuza. Likely a lot of money. And that kind of money could buy a whole lot of unskilled help. With that many opponents, quick and brutal elimination was the key to preventing being overwhelmed by numbers alone. Sasuke was alright with bloodshed, but he didn't like killing. But then again, they did have Naruto. And his Kage Bunshin technique was nothing to scoff out when it came to a mob of orange-clad menaces.

Her distraction almost cost her as she barely managed to raise Shiho-nii in time to block a sweeping strike from Zabuza-san's enormous sword. As it was, she flew backwards into Tazuna-san, bowling them both over.

_Ouch, _she said quietly in her mind, hands gone numb against the shaft of her weapon. Rolling quickly to the side, she noted approvingly that Sasuke had immediately filled her vacated position, stance low and one kunai braced defensively in front of him.

But Zabuza-san had eyes that swept over the bridge-builder and landed on her. "So you're the girl that broke my tool."

Sakura was about to nod, but Naruto chose that moment to speak. "Tool? He was a person. He fought Sakura-chan for you! Why would you call him a tool?"

Zabuza-san sneered. "Because that's what he was, kid. If you're a shinobi, get used to it. We're all disposable objects. Use them when they're useful, get rid of them when they're not."

"No," Naruto protested. "That's not true! Didn't you feel anything when he died?"

"Disappointment," Zabuza pronounced. Sakura nodded. It was a reasonable enough emotion.

But not to Naruto. No, Naruto would never be satisfied with an answer like that.

-X-X-X-

At the end of the day, it was not a legendary jounin, a Haruno clan heir, an Uchiha clan prodigy, or even the number one unpredictable ninja of Konohagakure who saved the day. It was one small boy with a heart full of courage, equipped with only a slingshot and a populace ready to throw off the yoke of their oppression.

But while Inari, the boy who hadn't believed in heroes, saved the day, it was Naruto who saved the half-twisted, almost lost to darkness existence that was Zabuza Momochi. He was also the only one who cried, when they dug him a grave overlooking the town, wedging his sword there as a grave marker. Sakura's lips were pursed thoughtfully, though, as she spilled out Haku's ashes over the grave, mixed with a handful of wildflower seeds.

"When the spring comes, he'll help the seeds to grow," she told Naruto.

"Uh-huh," Naruto said sloppily, swiping his sleeve across his face. Sasuke looked disgusted by the action, but he didn't comment.

"Kakashi-sensei, does it ever…get easier?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi ruffled his blond hair fondly. "Usually, you don't bond with your opponents like this," he told him dryly. "You're a special kid in a lot of ways Naruto."

"Hehe," Naruto giggled. "And they named the bridge after me!" He threw his arms up in the air, almost hitting Sasuke in the face.

The rest of his teammates blinked at him. _Extreme emotional swings much? _

A/N: Yes, couldn't totally cut Naruto's very first conversion experience. You're familiar with how it works, so please forgive me if I don't type it all out. This chapter left Sasuke and Naruto both unblooded. What changes will that bring for Team 7? Read on and find out.


	9. Jingle, Jangle

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Naruto franchise, though the plot and OCs are mine.

A/N: Finally, finally another installment. Short, but dedicated to Evionth, known here on FF as Andelevion, who did the fanart which is now the cover. This is part I of the chunin exam arc. (Edit: Thanks, everyone, for catching the misspelling of Jun's name).

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter 7-

Jingle, Jangle

Sakura kept glancing up at him, but not once did she ask why he was following her. Not even as she led him around the back of the bakery again, sliding the door open quietly. "Ran-oba-san, Kakashi-sensei has come to visit," she called out as they entered.

The white-haired woman appeared from the direction of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Her stern face did not soften at the sight of her ward, which made Kakashi frown internally. Instead, she simply said, "Welcome back," in a perfunctory manner. Then she glanced at him, jade eyes hard and tired. "There is someone who would like to meet him. He is waiting in the other room."

Sakura usually had very good posture, but she drew herself up even more correctly at that announcement. "This way," she said softly, deftly shedding her sandals as she stepped inside. Kakashi followed her example out of politeness, though Haruno Ran had already disappeared.

_Was that all the welcome she received when she returned home from her first mission? _There was something very strange with the household, something even stranger than the little pink-haired girl who'd been placed in his care.

And when the stranger in the next room looked up to meet his eyes, Kakashi thought to himself that he had found the reason. He had never felt such a malevolent aura when his opponent was doing nothing more than drinking tea. Kakashi didn't even know if the stranger was doing it intentionally. It almost seemed as if he was the tea bowl and someone had overfilled it, the urge to kill seeping over the delicate ceramic edges.

His age was rather indeterminate, but Kakashi thought he might be older than he was. Shorter hair so deep a red that it was burgundy, slighter build, but obviously a relative to both Haruno Jun and Haruno Sakura.

Kakashi took a subtle breath, hoping it would ease the oppressive aura in the room, which seemed to affect Sakura not at all. Rather, the moment she'd entered the room she'd humbled herself, pressing herself lower to the floor than anyone he'd ever seen in modern times, rising only after a significant period had passed. "And which Haruno do I have the pleasure of addressing this time?" he asked with forced humor.

"I am Haruno Shiki," the man replied. "And you are Hatake Kakashi. I have been told you have taken my Sakura into your care, so I thought this meeting necessary. I hope you will understand that what is said here cannot leave this room."

"Ah-ha," Kakashi laughed, scratching his scarecrow hair, "that's a promise I might not be able to keep, until I know what it is you want to tell me."

The man did not laugh. But he did smile and it was the eeriest sight Kakashi had seen in a long time. It almost felt like he'd drawn a knife instead. "I have already taken care of it. You will forgive the presumption." As his cup was set gently down on the table, complex black symbols appeared on the white walls of the room.

Kakashi felt the jutsu take root in his body before he could do anything to circumvent it. _There weren't even any hand signs! _"What is this?" he demanded. Glancing to the side, he found his student was not looking at him, but was still looking with patience toward Shiki.

"You should not worry. You will not be betraying your village. I am simply preventing you from betraying your student, however unintentional that betrayal might be. Our words will not leave this room. All that I disclose to you will be for your knowledge only. It will be up to you how you use it." His smile relaxed until his face was near-emotionless again. "You have met Jun?"

"I was going to ask what kind of man would let a monster like that near a child, but I guess this is my answer," Kakashi said, making no move to sit and Shiki offered no invitation.

"Jun is Sakura's retainer. If she is not powerful enough to make him obey her, the fault lies with Sakura. He will be at her side as often as she desires it. I do not think your other students will be talented enough yet to discover his presence."

No, not a beast like that. But having a demon hidden beneath a straw raincoat did not mean it was not there and he would prefer that Jun be put down like the dog he'd taken his nickname from. "I didn't realize there was such a thing as a Haruno clan."

"It is as it should be. This has what has allowed us to survive the bloodline purges and remain unaffiliated in the Shinobi Wars. No country would have us and it is dangerous to gather the clan. Within Sakura's lifetime, the clan has met only once. It was there it was decided she was to be the heir. This is why she is receiving special attention, because she has won a grand star of destiny to follow. As her teacher, nourish her skills, but also be certain that your other students do not hinder her progress."

From his peripheral vision, Kakashi could see Sakura still sitting as if this dangerous interview was something commonplace. "She is quite advanced, though no one seems to have taught her moderation. I guess it might be too much to ask if you would have a word with her about seriously harming her teammates?"

Shiki glanced over at Sakura, who bowed her head. From guilt or some other emotion, he could not tell. "Sakura is not like your other students," Shiki said. "But I will give her the command. In exchange, it should be clear to you now that her teammates should not interfere in her battles."

Kakashi blinked. "What if she needs help?"

"If the need is desperate enough, let her call upon Jun. Your students will only be hurt if they attempt to give aid."

"You make it almost sound like she'd cut them down to get to the enemy," Kakashi said as a joke.

But Shiki did not laugh. "Sakura has been raised to eliminate any obstacle that comes between her and her objective. Loyalty, friendship, love, all of these do not matter."

"You can't erase those things, no matter what kind of training you've put her through," Kakashi said, growing angry for the first time.

"It is not the training. It is the way she was born. You will discover it yourself, in time. No matter how you try to teach her, blood will prove true. Remember, this is all a courtesy on my part."

"Quite aggressive for courtesy, don't you think?" Kakashi asked grimly.

"You Konoha shinobi tend to overlook everything that does not pose a serious and immediate threat to your precious village and 'will of fire.' Your righteousness makes you blind to the true nature of things."

"And you don't have a problem with that?"

"Oh, no." That eerie smile was back. "Righteousness is something I have never been accused of."

-X-X-X-

Sakura wished that Shiki-dono hadn't cornered Kakashi-sensei like that. After her teacher had taken his leave and Shiki-dono had finished his tea and disappeared, she'd continued sitting on the floor, idly pressing her fingers against each other.

Would Kakashi-sensei tell her she couldn't be his student anymore? Would he get her kicked out of Konohagakure? Shiki-dono had sealed his tongue on the matters discussed in the room, but a person with Kakashi's reputation would have enough influence to get her exiled anyway if he approached the Hokage directly.

Her fear threatened to push her in the First Flower state, but she forced the chakra back. She rose abruptly, stumbling a little as circulation returned to her cramped legs, and ran through the house, sliding on her shoes at the door and sliding it open without a word to Ran-oba-san.

Sakura sprinted through the streets of her village, looking high and low for her sensei, even in the shops she was chased out of as soon as the clerks caught sight of her. The sun dipped lower on the horizon and she finally grew winded, balancing on one of the electric poles as she tried to sense his chakra, but as she suspected the talented jounin was well out of the range of her senses. Sweat beading on her flushed cheeks, her bangs fell over her eyes as her chin dipped down.

"Boo!"

With a startled screech, Sakura summoned Shiho-nii-san and had him in a defensive position across her body, the wide sleeves of his incorporeal body fluttering in the edge of his peripheral vision, before she registered who stood in front of her. "Kakashi-sensei?" she asked in a broken voice.

"Yo!" he greeted. "Seeing as how you've been searching for me so diligently, I thought you'd be less surprised when you found me."

Sakura couldn't stop the words that tumbled from her mouth. "You're not going to have me kicked out of Konoha, are you? Shiki-dono, well, Shiki-dono meant what he said, but he won't interfere in the village. I swear!"

One of Kakashi's silver brows rose. "And if he did decide to interfere, what would you do about it?"

"I'm the heir. I have the right to challenge him to single combat," she offered desperately.

Kakashi sighed as he rumpled her hair. Crouching on the plastic-coated wire, he spoke directly to her. "Unless you have a death wish, I wouldn't go challenging that clan head of yours anytime soon, kiddo. And while it's touching, offering to kill your family members to prove a point is weird. So in the future, don't. As a suggestion."

Sakura blinked, relieved tears making her lashes heavy. "But for five generations, no one has inherited without killing their predecessor," she explained as she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, the butt of her guan-dao resting on the pole.

Kakashi sighed again. "You can't just wait for that old man to die?"

Sakura giggled, a muffled sound. "Shiki-dono is young for a main house member."

"So, that's a no." He rose easily, as if he wasn't balanced on a wire that might have been an inch and a half thick. "You mean that when you're the oyakata-sama, you'll have to wait for your heir to kill you?"

Sakura nodded, her tears finally abating. "They won't necessarily succeed, especially on the first try. They look down on oyakata who kill their heirs, but I'm Shiki-dono's second heir. He pronounced the first one he got at the fifteen-year gathering before the one I was declared heir at unsatisfactory and killed him. The rumors said he fed the remains of the body to the pregnant women of the clan, passing back the heir's strength."

Kakashi-sensei froze in his act of ruffling her hair for a moment, then as if he'd reached a decision, ruffled her hair again. "Sakura-chan, I don't know if that passes for gossip in your clan, but let's keep those kinds of stories between us, ne?"

Sakura nodded seriously. "Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi-sensei turned, but then he spoke again. "Out of personal curiosity, what really happened to your parents?"

Sakura answered him with the kind of off-hand response you might expect when talking about the doings of people that had briefly been her neighbors and had since moved away. "Oh, Chouko-san led a rebellion against the family. She was exiled in Mizu no Kuni. And Katsuo-san is acting as Shiki-dono's page."

"I see." Kakashi replied softly. "Well, I have a surprise for the team tomorrow, Sakura-chan. Look forward to it."

-X-X-X-

"The chunin exams?" Naruto queried.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Kakashi explained the knucklehead-ninja what the exam was. He was really beginning to wonder what Naruto had actually picked up in the Academy. Then his dark eyes traveled to the teammate whose response he was more interested in as Kakashi, after handing over the paperwork, disappeared.

Sakura's intelligent jade eyes were flickering quickly over the pages as she read through the contract. Sasuke didn't intend to bother.

"So," he asked, "you're going to enter?"

Sakura blinked at him. "Of course. We can only enter as a three-man team, so I hope you also intend to enter, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke bristled at the implication. "And why wouldn't I?" he challenged.

Sakura's eyes returned to the papers clutched in her hand. "You don't like watching people die. Especially those you are familiar with. If Kakashi-sensei has nominated us, there is a good chance the other jounin-sensei have offered their followers names for promotion. With that many entrants, it's probable at least one of us will die during the exam. It will be upsetting. For you."  
>Sasuke opened his mouth to make some comeback, but Naruto interrupted. "What do you mean, Sakura-chan?"<p>

Sakura flipped through her packet, holding out a particular sheet. "This one indicates that if we pass the initial phase, we'll be asked to sign a liability waver so that the village can't be held accountable for out deaths in the later portions of the exam. If I was a jounin from a foreign village, I would instruct my gennin to take out their opposition if they could."

"But why?!" Naruto asked, appalled.

"Because a village's future is in its gennin. Career ninja like the Hokage or the Sannin are rare. Most humans don't have bodies that can withstand the stress of battle past their forties. Men," she said pointedly, "reach their physical peak in their mid-twenties. Ninja reach their peak even earlier than that while they still retain the flexibility of childhood. After that, it's a physical battle against time. That's why many become teachers or retire, because despite their experience, they can't match the speed of younger opponents."

Naruto nodded slowly. "That's still awful, though."

"Awful, but smart. Pretend you're Tora. Would you rather eat fledglings in the nest or wait until they grew into birds that could fly and peck at your eyes?"

Naruto grimaced, "I'd rather it cat food, if it's all the same to you, Sakura-chan. So ninja from other villages will be competing? I haven't seen any strange ninja around."

"They probably won't open the gates to foreign ninja until today, the day before the exam begins, in order to minimize the chance of incidents."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. Surely a squad of foreign-nin wouldn't be stupid enough to attack right in the heart of the village. They had to know they couldn't escape.

Sakura treated him to the same long-suffering look she often directed at Naruto. Which felt insulting, because he was much more intelligent than that idiot.

"If a ninja dies during the exams, it's a pity. If a ninja dies outside the exams, it's an international incident. So even if a foreign ninja goads you into attacking, be careful. If he dies, it could be interpreted as a move of aggression on Konoha's part. Foreign teams arrive in what the courts will call a 'good faith arrangement'. Which means, even if they are from hostile nations, there is a cessation of aggressive acts from either side during the duration of the exam. Konoha becomes in essence a neutral zone. Any suspicious deaths are a violation of that agreement. They'll be smart enough to corner the scapegoat while he's alone, so it will be the testimony of the rest of his team against that lone ninja. The Yamanaka clan would be able to interrogate, of course, but the foreign nation will cite bias-."

Naruto cut her off. "Sakura-chan? I think you're over thinking this. Kakashi-sensei said these happen on a regular basis, right? There'd surely have been a lot more fuss if something like that had happened recently in the past."

Sakura's mouth moved like she was about to counter him, but then she closed it. "You may be right," she admitted. "I'm sorry. Competitions make me nervous."

Naruto gave her a winning smile. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan! You're awesome. I bet you'll breeze right through the test!" It was enough to make Sasuke gag, but he supposed Naruto had a point. Sakura was good. Suspiciously good.

He scoffed aloud. "I'm leaving."

Sakura worried her lip, but apparently couldn't resist the impulse. "Sasuke-san. A lot of these gennin will be older than us. Because of the danger, many jounin don't recommend their charges until they're certain they will pass. It damages the prestige of a village if they have a lot of competitors that aren't promoted. So please be careful."

Naruto was wearing that dumb look again, eyes drooped to half-mast and jaw slack. "Sakura-chan, you just killed the awesome. You talk like an old lady sometimes."

Sakura laughed, embarrassed, pink dusting her cheeks. "Sorry, sorry."

Naruto waved her off and started walking away, though it had been Sasuke himself who had announced he was leaving. He watched, rather dumbfounded as Naruto crossed his arms behind his head and Sakura followed, hands behind her back in the first civilian pose he'd ever seen her assume. "So, where'd you learn all that stuff?" Naruto asked her as they left him behind.

Sasuke didn't hear her answer. He'd _never_ been the one left behind, except by _that man_. He was the one who left. Always. It was he who set the pace. Girls followed him. Naruto was always bugging him about some competition between them that was so uneven it was laughable. Until now. Until Naruto and Sakura had just...walked away.

-X-X-X-

Temari assessed their "competition." Her brothers were always, always dragging her into their trouble. Gaara was bad enough, but did Kankuro really need to pick on a kid who didn't even wasn't even half his size? Internalizing a sigh, she focused on the two who were sticking up for the squirming one. Boy and girl, had to be gennin. The boy, who had unruly blond hair, looked like he was about to leap at Kankuro's throat, but the girl was more composed.

"Nin-san, if you would release Konohamaru-kun, we would be much obliged." She smiled. "I don't think the Hokage will reflect kindly on his grandson being manhandled by-," and intelligent green eyes flickered to their headbands, "Suna-nin."

This time, the movement she internalized was slapping a palm to her forehead. Of all the kiddies in the village, Kankuro just had to pick the Hokage's grandson? Temari's eyes narrowed. A coincidence like that was pretty unlikely. The girl was probably just lying to get Kankuro to let the boy go. But she was good, she had to admit. She'd even had her going for a moment there.

But before she could say anything, a rock cracked hard against Kankuro's wrist and he dropped the sniveling kid. The blond one wheeled, following the trajectory path of the rock, his eyes landing on the figure in the tree at the same moment hers did. "Sasuke!"

_Local hottie, _Temeri thought to herself, taking in his cocky stance. A little young for her, but with a few years on him, a definite possibility.

But then she froze as a familiar killing intent registered. _Gaara. _

"Kankuro." It was just one word, but it stopped her older brother from retaliating against the gennin in the tree, who hopped down to join what she suspected were his teammates.

She fought not to shiver as Gaara's sand reformed next to them. Watched on quietly as he demanded the gennin's name, knowing he had marked him as someone to destroy. Watched as the dumb blond tried to force himself into the conversation, almost introducing himself, but his teammate's hand slapped over his mouth.

"Suna-nin," the girl said, "it was a pleasure meeting you. But I think this is a conversation best finished tomorrow, at the exam." So saying, she reached out, hooking the collar of the boy Kankuro had been bullying and disappeared with them both. The boys companions, who she'd overlooked until this moment, glanced at each other and then followed. With one last challenging glance, Uchiha Sasuke disappeared as well.

-X-X-X-

Naruto was still cackling about Sasuke's defeat as they entered the room they'd be taking the exam in. "Naruto, laughing at your teammate for his defeat at the hands of a clearly superior opponent is rude," she chided, but she couldn't wipe the smile off her face either.

Even Shiho-nii-san was chuckling. Sakura had meditated with him most of yesterday so that she wouldn't have to unseal him in order to have the comfort of his company. And Shiho-nii-san, who didn't dislike much of anyone, disliked her Uchiha teammate.

When she'd asked, he'd explained. "He knows he's a superior ninja, but all he does with that is look down at anyone he considers inferior. And with his Uchiha blood and upbringing, that is most of the world. Power should be used for the good of the populace, not hoarded for personal benefit."

Sakura often wondered how someone like Shiho-nii-san could have been born a Haruno.

Sasuke was glaring at them both as they entered the room. Naruto, ever dramatic, swept the doors open, so they had a good view of the crowded playing field. Sakura hooked a finger in his collar before he marched in the door. "What is the keyword for today?"

Naruto gave her an exasperated look. Then he glanced back at Sasuke and leaned close. He whispered, "If we don't do something, none of the ninja in there will take us seriously. Like you said, we're first-year gennin, which means we don't even register on their scale of competition, except maybe Mr. Broody back there, but that's just because he's a name brand. I took a look around yesterday, after that run-in with the Suna-bakas. You were definitely right. Some of them look like they're Kakashi-sensei's age."

Sakura was so startled by Naruto's handling of the situation that she didn't stop him as he marched in and more or less declared war against every ninja assembled. Even Shiho-nii-san stared after him. "He's going to get them killed if he's not careful," he muttered. "You'll have to be more careful now, Sakura. If they take you seriously, it will be harder for you not to bloom. If you use your kekkei genkai in open combat like this, with judges watching, Shiki-dono will not take it lightly. You _must _pass this exam without using it."

Sakura swallowed. Falling into the First Flower was almost as natural as breathing during combat. Not using it was asking her to fight on a thin layer ice over a fast-moving river during the spring thaw without falling through.

Shiho-nii-san embraced her from behind, resting his head on her chin. "The good news is that they are all gennin. There might not be a single one who even challenges you."

Sakura wanted to tell him about the Suna-nin she had met yesterday. Suna no Gaara was unlike anyone she'd met before. From the Haruno clan to Zabuza, killing intent was something cold, focused, like an invisible blade. Gaara's killing intent was a sandstorm or a blazing inferno, unfocused, careless. He didn't even seem to be in control of it. Should she say she disapproved? Or should she say she was frightened of it? Her killing intent was as empty and dispassionate as a shikigami. Familiarity, allegiance, these it recognized in a cold, evaluating sort of way. But Gaara was different. His killing intent was almost invasively personal.

Sakura hated it.

Sakura was so busy ignoring Gaara, she almost missed it when Ino glomped the still surly Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke glared at Sakura, but she didn't know what he expected her to do about the girl. She was his fan, after all, so he should be the one to deal with her. She abandoned him to his fate as she noticed a silver-haired nin approaching the noisy group that had gathered by the door. Kiba, who was next to her, muttered, "Stinks like a medic."

A brow raised in response to that. Medics were typically support-type nin. Real B-type personalities. Not scouts, which was what that deck of cards painted him as. She exchanged a glance with Shiho-nii-san, who nodded. They would both watch for the silver-haired nin in the future. Because with this information, he looked less like a career failure and more like he'd been evaluating the ninja of the Hidden Villages. But for what purpose? Would a ninja of the Leaf really need to collect data on people who were on the same side? Sakura frowned as she watched him put away Rock Lee's card.

Something was rotten in the state of Konoha.

-X-X-X-

Sakura tried. Really, she did. But in order to have Shiho-nii-san manifest, she'd stayed up late into the night. And the test, while it would stretch the abilities of an Academy student, shouldn't really be a challenge to anyone who'd stayed awake through their classes. This was the one section of the test where the fresh graduates had an advantage. For the older ninjas, a lot of this would be so internalized it would be difficult to write cogently of on paper, while the fresh gennin were still accustomed to the paper tests at the Academy. Or at least they should be. Sakura caught sight of some suspicious movement from former Academy classmates, but Sasuke seemed confident of his answers.

Her head dipped lower and lower until it hit the desk with a soft thunk, her arms crossed protectively over her answers.

-X-X-X-

Naruto was looking at her sourly again. "That test was, like, impossible. And you slept through most of it," he accused after they'd been dismissed to prepare for the Forest of Death portion.

"Me?" Sakura said, "Accuse Sasuke. He was the one trying to get everyone around him caught cheating."

The nin in question smirked. "If they got caught, they didn't deserve to advance."

"Right," Sakura said dryly.

Sasuke shrugged. "It's not as if the test was designed to take up the whole time slot. You either know the material or you don't and you spend the whole time cheating. I think a few of the participants were chunin plants."

"Well," Sakura admitted, "Sasuke wins this one. I didn't even think of cheating."  
>Naruto growled. "I hate you both." He threw both arms dramatically into the air. "Here I was, wondering if I was dooming my team to genin-hood forever, wondering if I should take the risk, and there you both were not even bothering to help me cheat!" He pointed an accusatory finger, first at Sasuke, then at Sakura, jabbing it like it was a knife.<p>

Sasuke scoffed. "Don't lie, dobe. You didn't give a second thought to us when you challenged Ibiki."  
>"Did too," Naruto defended.<p>

"Did not," Sasuke retorted pointedly.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at his teammate and turned to Sakura to get her opinion, but their third teammate was already gone. "If I didn't know better," he said with narrowed eyes, "I'd think she didn't like hanging out with you, Sasuke."

"Me? Take a look in the mirror, you baka. Sakura obviously just can't stand stupid people who can't even cheat properly."


	10. Carnivorous Flowers

Disclaimer: I don't own the series, characters, etc.

A/N: I don't actually own the third box set, so I've never watched the Forest of Death portion of the anime. Therefore, I can't review it, so please forgive jarring inaccuracies. I'm operating on later flashbacks.

The First Flower of Spring  
>-Chapter Ten-<p>

Carnivorous Flowers

"I wonder if she gets cold in that." Naruto shot her an incredulous look, still shaken by Anko's speech. "Naruto-san, I already explained to you the implications of the forms. And psychological warfare is a time-honored tactic. It should be assumed they will choose someone disturbing as the second exam proctor."

"What if she hears you?" Naruto hissed, drawing closer to Sakura's side, as if he was using her body to shield himself from the older kunoichi's line of sight.

"I imagine she takes great pride in her ability to discomfit gennin," Sakura told him prosaically.

Naruto didn't quite look as if he believed her, but then it was time to enter the Forest of Death. And Sakura had to latch down tight on the instinct to linger behind, allowing the other teams to draw ahead of them so they could come upon them at their leisure, waiting for that perfect moment of vulnerability before turn the scene into a bloodbath. For Sakura, this was the only way in which she could assure that her own team was safe. She could not trust to the goodwill of others-time in the tunnels beneath Mizu no Kuni had taught her a far different lesson.

Dead people cannot harm you in any way that matters. It's only the living one has to be wary of.

But she knew that Naruto would be aghast at the very thought of it. It was comforting, at times, to know that they still had such a fine moral compass to be consulted. Sasuke as well. She wouldn't do him the disservice of saying he wouldn't call the action "wrong," but he was more likely to keep silent and commit an atrocity in his quest for "hardness" than trust his own moral judgment.

So she listened to the arguments of Naruto and Sasuke as they plotted out a plan of attack that wasn't a plan of attack at all, but mostly a defensive strategy, as if one bearing the Heaven Scroll would just tumble into their laps, as it were.

"What do you think, Sakura?" Naruto appealed to her.

She glanced at him. Then, for the first time since they'd entered the dense jungle, she pushed away her own plan of action and considered her teammates. "Naruto-san, have you considered using your clones to scout the Forest so we might have a better idea of where opposing teams are? Once we know that, we can choose an isolated team to pursue. Since the skill levels of our opponents are unknown, it would be best if we chose an area where other teams would be unlikely to interfere in our hunt. You might be aware of that during your scouting as well."

Naruto blinked, then he grinned, pleased as a fox in a hen coop. "Gotcha, Sakura-chan!" And then he disappeared before she could offer further suggestions.

"Idiot," Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura pursed her lips. It was admittedly a poor idea to rush into something like that, but Naruto had been evading the likes of jounin for years during his pranks. There emerged a distinct possibility that both of them had been underestimating their companion. A companion, who despite all appearances to the contrary, might have potential as more than a frontline brawler. Scouts had to be among the most flexible of shinobi, because not only did they require first-class single combat abilities should they be discovered, they also needed the charisma to unearth secrets, unparalleled transformation abilities, and a great deal of stealth.

While Naruto sometimes fumbled at the last, Sakura could spy prodigious raw talent at the others. After all, while his female transformation was ridiculous, didn't they always say at the Academy that the most difficult identity to assume was that of the opposite gender?

"Sasuke-san, let's keep moving. Naruto-san left before we could establish a rendezvous point, but perhaps we will be lucky enough to stumble upon something interesting."

"Interesting how?" he challenged her.

"Well, have you considered why they are holding this part of the exam in a practice area forbidden to gennin?"

"Besides the giant insects, carnivorous plants and treacherous terrain? No," Sasuke answered dryly.

"Let me rephrase that. How do you think Konohagakure removes any implication of bias in the exam results? By removing any advantage a gennin raised in Konoha would have by thrusting them into an unfamiliar environment. One would think we would have the advantage in forest combat, but none of the flora and fauna here are the ones we're used to. Konohagakure is in a temperate region-our winters are rainy but it rarely snows. Its forests are primarily deciduous. _This_ forest, however, is tropical, to an extent. You'll notice the heavier undergrowth, drooping tree limbs and surface roots, and oversized insects. It's as if they transplanted a patch of somewhere else here. It's meant to disorient us. So, therefore, while Naruto spies on our competition, it will be our responsibility to discover how to use the environment to our advantage. Think of it like this-this area is also a lot wetter, which will be of advantage to the teams from Rain, because the annual precipitation levels in their-."

Sasuke cut her off. "I get it. Let's go."

-X-X-X-

If one could overlook her tedious lectures when goaded into speaking, Sakura really was an invaluable ally, Sasuke grudgingly admitted. He thought she might do it because she was nervous or to distract herself, because if left too long, a kind of vacant, closed expression crossed her face. He only admitted this after the second team they'd successfully ambushed. Both had been teams Naruto had seen fighting other teams during his surveillance, thus giving them the advantage when it came to combat, though she'd still deliberately carefully on which styles would be most easily countered by their own.

It had been Sasuke himself who'd made the final call on both teams. He didn't know how to explain it as anything other than a "feeling"-when he compared a description of an enemy's jutsu with his teammates' styles, he could almost project the course of a battle in his head. Sakura seemed able to do the same thing, except Sakura had a really terrible tendency to not account for personality. Need alone wouldn't make Naruto take on an opponent he felt sorry for. Sakura didn't feel sorry for anyone.

She'd also been having them sleep during the day in two hour shifts, one of them awake to stand guard. They slept every six hours, never in the same place, always moving toward the Tower and their goal. Sakura'd had the strangest look on her face when Naruto asked her where she'd come up with the idea, which to him had the feel of something desperate, something a shinobi forced to extremes, without proper support might do.

She didn't even let them sleep in the tent. She didn't even have them set it up, except at night, and then they slept covered in the dreary moss that clung to the trees, at least twenty yards from their already disguised camp.

The moss had been Naruto's idea. Sasuke wasn't certain who was more surprised, him or Sakura when Naruto had returned looking like he'd fallen in a mud puddle and explained that it had been _on purpose. _

Naruto was rifling through their bound enemies' pockets at the moment, redistributing their tools and supplies generously. "Aha! Heaven Scroll!" he announced in triumph, holding it aloft for the other two to see. "What now?" he asked Sakura, who looked thoughtful. Sasuke for his part was annoyed at the way the dobe just seemed to hand over the leadership to Sakura.

He reproached himself for the thought the moment he had it. What did it matter which one of them was leading so long as they got to the tower? It wasn't like he _cared _or anything. After this, it was all individual combat, anyway. And then he'd be a chunin. And chunin didn't necessarily stay in their original squads. Not that it mattered. Rank was nothing-all he wanted was power. Power to defeat _him. _And he mustn't lose sight of that.

Sakura, for all her eerie-ness, seemed to think of things that would never occur to him or Naruto. "We have two options," she said in a low voice, glancing down at their opponents. Despite them all being unconscious (a direct result of his and Naruto's interference), she motioned them away from the bodies and led them back into the Forest. Once satisfied there were no listeners, she frowned at Naruto until he sheepishly stashed the scroll he'd been carrying openly.

"In option one, we now make for the tower and safety. There, we have plenty of time to rest before the next round begins."

"And option two?" Sasuke prompted.

Sakura tilted her head to one side. "We continue to collect scrolls. Eliminate the competition, therefore increasing our own chances of success. To some extent, we could even control who advances to the third round. One on one, some of the gennin we saw earlier are poor opponents for our individual skill sets. Team on team, however, we have a much better chance. Especially if we manage to draw them out one by one. If we don't overexert ourselves, I don't foresee any trouble, even if reaching the tower isn't the end of the test."

Naruto regarded her thoughtfully. "Isn't that kind of...unsportsmanlike?" But his voice was hesitant and Sasuke could tell he was giving the second option some consideration.

"Some of them teams are obviously poorly prepared. They've already had some valuable experience. Now they know being a shinobi isn't all fun and games. Not many people are like us, Naruto. We've been on an A-rank mission already, but most of these gennin haven't been on anything harder than a C-rank. Think about the mission with Tazuna if it wasn't for Gatou-would you still have learned the same things from it?"

"No," Naruto said quietly. "So you think we'll be doing them a favor, then?"

"Better us now, then Suna no Gaara in the finals."

Naruto shuddered at that. "Yeah. You guys didn't see him-he's not fighting. He's hunting. I've never met-," he shook his head. "He's bad news," he finally concluded.

"Don't worry," Sakura reassured him. "We won't engage anyone without a certain level of confidence in our victory."

Naruto grinned at her, but a hesitance lingered.

"Well then," Sasuke said, "let's go."

-X-X-X-

Sakura let out a shaky breath as she crouched on the branch of a tree. It was almost over-they'd drifting in a wide spiral, drawing ever close to the tower-and their time was getting shorter. Her nerves felt raw-she'd been lecturing more and more lately in response, because the calm, rational analysis kept her grounded. Kept her from letting go of the fear and worry.

Shiho-nii was helping with surveillance with this one last team. But he was frowning as he returned to her side, sleeves billowing as his feet seemed to touch down on the branch. "There's something wrong here."

"Retreat?" she asked him.

"That would be best."

Sakura obeyed him without question, for Shiho-nii had always known best. And she made certain Naruto and Sasuke followed her lead, not giving them answered as she herded them toward the tower.

"What is it?" Sasuke hissed at her.

"Something's wrong," she hissed back, trying to urge them on faster, but then a chill traveled up her spine, not comforting in its familiarity.

"My, my, my," A teasing female voice rang out behind them, "If you run away now, won't that ruin all the fun?"

Sakura couldn't help it. With the combined stress of the past few days and the newcomer's killing intent, her kekkei genkai started to bud. Sasuke was frozen, she noted, though Naruto was not. Peculiar, considering their past reactions. Shiho-nii hovered worriedly near her shoulder, but didn't speak.

"Perhaps, nin-san," Sakura acknowledged. She took in the confident stance of their opponent. Something was indeed wrong. Only someone terribly arrogant, if they were a gennin, would confront three other gennin while they were on-guard. A slight twitch in her hand was the only outward sign of her tension. As if she'd just caught it, she put her hand behind her back, out the shinobi's line of sight. Her agile fingers spelled out a message to Shiho-nii, who'd looked down at her movement. J-U-N.

He nodded, which was when Sakura felt that something terribly bad was going to happen, because Shiho-nii despised Haruno Jun. "Be careful, Sakura," he warned her before he disappeared to retrieve her guard dog.

As the woman opposite her began to peel of her face, Sakura hoped they lasted that long. The battle began with a stately kind of slowness, intentions scraping like knives across their ears, then there were snakes and the world began to move. Sakura unsealed Shiho-nii in an instant, barking at Naruto to watch Sasuke, knowing that size in a snake often equated to slowness, the bulk of the body making it less flexible, which was why a tiny brown snake with potent venom was more dangerous than one of these oversized constrictors.

Sakura had, under Tsubasa-sensei, studied animal hunting styles as a matter of course. Tsubasa-sensei was a kind of old-fashioned ninja in that way, drawing more inspiration from nature and less from manuals. And he was not blind to the possibility of her facing animal summons in the future, though the Haruno did not generally make use of them. Animals tended to sense such things as cruelty in a person and the clan made nin-animals cautious. Some of them even seemed to be able to sense the presence of a branch clan member. Which was dangerous.

So she knew where her strike needed to land, directly behind the skull, severing its spinal cord. Its bulk was the most dangerous thing about it, Sakura decided as it tore down trees in its wake, producing dangerous shrapnel larger than she was. She flicked a few kunai with explosive tags attached to keep its attention on her, then drew it away from her teammates, using the trees as shields against its still deadly jaws. Not that it was much help, the huge constrictor soon crushing them in coils that moved like quicksilver.

Ducking behind another three, she frowned, trying to think through what she knew of snakes. A clone as she would be capable of would be ineffective. Snakes were not visual predators.

_I should have let Naruto handle this, _she realized belatedly. _I would have been a better match against the shinobi._

While she'd been thinking, the snake had as well. Silently, it had kept low, on the forest floor to minimize the sound of its passing. Creeping close, it had intended to make a single strike, swallowing her whole. And it had almost succeeding.

As Sakura thrust Shiho-nii deeper into the roof of the snake's mouth, mining for its brain, she tried to brace herself. The snake lost all conscious nerve control, throwing itself into trees and the ground. Sakura lost all sense of direction as her prison rolled and tumbled, her head slapping hard against Shiho-nii's hilt, but then it finally came to rest.

Stumbling from its mouth, she tried very hard not to vomit, but willpower couldn't overcome motion sickness. "Gross," Sakura pronounced weakly as she stood, taking in the thin coat of saliva that coated her. Better saliva than stomach acid was the only consolation she could give herself as she backtracked, splintered trees leaving an easy trail to follow.

She hoped that Jun had taken one of his odd quirks of humor and protected her teammates. Because a ninja strong enough to summon such a large beast with such ease was far beyond her skills. Far beyond even their combined strength.

And that worried Sakura.

-X-X-X-

Naruto was backing away slowly, Sasuke slung across his shoulder with all the grace of a sack of rice. He didn't know why Sasuke had frozen up, only that he had the worst timing ever. It wasn't the first time he'd seen the red-haired ninja who was facing down the black-haired shinobi. Haruno Jun.

He'd pretty much understood in the first thirty seconds that anyone who could peel their face off and laugh like that was scary, but it wasn't until he saw Jun's expression that he knew there was something more than a little _off _about Sakura's relative.

The black-haired man, who'd introduced himself as Orochimaru-and expected them to know who that was-was frowning at the newcomer. "I'm afraid I don't know you."

"S'alright," the other man said. "I'm just a dog that's had my master loose my chain. Names won't matter when I'm gnawing on your bones." He smiled so widely then Naruto was almost certain it had to hurt. "Now, let's make history." He flicked his hand, like he was urging on a pet. Naruto could only watch in a strangled kind of awe as the muscles in his back shifted, making the branches shift and flex as if the scarred tree was growing.

He almost shrieked as something grabbed his ankle and pulled them both below, tugging him to flat out sprint. Behind them, he could hear a battle start. "Don't look back," Sakura ordered curtly. "Just run."

The enormous weapon in her hand vanished as she sealed it, increasing her speed and he followed, his shoulder pressing sharply into Sasuke's gut every time his foot touched ground. "Put me down, dobe," a familiar voice growled.

"I think not, scaredy-cat," he snapped back. "If I put you down, you might just freeze up again."

Sasuke stiffened in his hold, which of course just made it more uncomfortable for both of them. "I'm fine now," he insisted darkly.

Naruto snorted, then dumped him on the ground. Sakura skidded to a stop steps from them.

"If either of you dies, I will no longer take responsibility," she told them darkly.

"Che. Just as long as poor Sasuke-chan here can keep up," he baited his rival.

A scathing glare was his answer, but then Sakura was sprinting again his options being to follow her or stay and argue with Sasuke, he chose to follow her.

"Will Jun be okay?" he asked her as he managed to draw even.

Sakura frowned faintly. "I wonder if he wouldn't be doing the world a service," she said beneath her breath. "That man was dangerous," she said louder. "He's not an enemy we should even consider facing. For now, we need to reach the tower."

"It should be safe there?" he prompted, noticing she hadn't really answered his question about Jun.

"We'll have numbers, if nothing else," she said, which was not reassuring. She pulled a pair of scrolls from her pouch. And, pulling up some reserve, increased her pace even more.

Even Sasuke looked visibly winded by the time they'd reached the tower, where Sakura took one look at the inscription and cracked the seal.

When the smoke cleared, familiar smiling Iruka-sensei appeared before them, the words on his lips to congratulate them.

"You have a serious breach of security," was what Sakura told him instead.

-X-X-X-

Their encounter had ate up less of their time than Sakura had expected, but then again, she'd projected their schedule assuming that they wouldn't be running for their lives. So they had a little time to sit in silence, waiting for the straggling teams to reach the tower.

Naruto kept shifting uncomfortably every few minutes, but she ignored him. And Sasuke, who was in some sort of funk of self-loathing. She pitied the next opponent he'd meet. Sasuke rarely forgave himself for his failings, but he was the kind who projected it outward, rather than inward.

Kakashi-sensei was in conference with the Hokage, presumably about their unexpected encounter in the Forest. But what was of most interest to her now was the rumor that was currently circulating that, despite their activities, too many teams had made it through the test and there would be a preliminary round before the third section of the test.

When the proctors announced they were to gather in the arena below, Sakura easily took her place among the assembled genin, watching the Hokage as he made the obligatory greetings and congratulations. He didn't seem overtly concerned about their intruder, so Sakura refocused her attention on the exam. She was slightly surprised when he did announce that there would be a preliminary-after all, these were ninja trials, not a spectator sport. If it took them hours and days, then that was the time it would take. The crowds should be a secondary concern. Though her Haruno heritage made her question the wisdom of allowing such a large crowd, which could be so easily infiltrated, watch any ninja trial. Jounin, at least, wouldn't be using handsigns for all and sundry to see and would have the wisdom not to expose their techniques.

But this was Konohagakure and the Hokage's word was law.

She was surprised, however, to see a taker for opting out of the preliminary. Her jade eyes narrowed. It was that silver-haired medic again. Strange, that.

But then it was time for them to clear off the floor and the matches to begin.

A/N: Short chapter, yes, but I'll be putting a lot of energy into writing the matches. For now Sasuke has avoided the curse seal, but neither has he achieved Sharingan. How will he fare? Find out in the next installment. And I considered a long fight sequence with Orochimaru, but really, discretion is the better part of valor.


	11. Of Men and Dogs (Part I)

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Eleven-

Of Men and Dogs (Part I)

Naruto seemed to have already shed any vestiges of worry about their confrontation in the forest, which Sakura supposed was admirable in its own way. It wasn't that Naruto was shallow or stupid, which was what it first appeared to be, but rather that he clung so tightly to the present that no matter how tumultuous the past, he remained undisturbed by it. It was an extremely valuable trait for a ninja, whose greatest threat off the battlefield was the psychological distress caused by their lifestyle. Missions were often morally dubious, friends were apt to die, and few people were born killers.

In contrast, Sasuke brooded, amplifying even small incidents until he could dismantle and comprehend them in his own quiet, obsessive, unhealthy way. If their personalities were slotted into the clan's worldview, Naruto would have been born a main house member and Sasuke, with his inability to let the past remain in the past, would have most certainly been part of the branch house. But he would have never been chosen to Walk in the White Moon Garden, unless there was a deeply hidden aspect of his character she had yet to see. For the most important factor in a weapon was their ability to put their wielder and his or her best interests above their own desires, which Sasuke could not and would not do.

But while she frowned at the silently simmering Uchiha, who had a promise written on his features that boded ill for his opponent. _You can measure a man, _Kagami-sama had told her once, _by how he responds to his own shortcomings. The strong accept and overcome them. The weak take them out on others._

_ And Shiki-dono? _Sakura had inquired.

Kagami-sama had rolled her eyes. _Shiki doesn't have shortcomings. Reality does, _she'd quipped.

An announcement from the floor below snapped Sakura from her reverie, her gaze joining all the others in the room as the board lit and names began to scroll through almost too quickly to be read. Tension in the room ratcheted upwards by degrees until the names stilled and several genin hopefuls leaned forward eagerly to read the name displayed there.

_Haruno Sakura vs. Yoroi Akado _flashed across the screen and Sakura scanned the crowd of unfamiliar genin until her opponent stepped forward. Jade eyes narrowed as she assessed him.

Though his headband proclaimed he was from Konoha, she had never seen any of the members of the purple and white clad squad before this exam. While not totally impossible with the size of Konoha's shinobi population, it was unusual in the sense that Sakura had a very good memory. If she had seen them before, she felt she would remember, even if he had not been wearing the round sunglasses and mask.

In the case of Kabuto, who was quite clearly a medic, she could attribute it to his spending time in the labs and hospital of Konoha. And, admittedly, Sakura had never had too much of an interest in other ninja, occupied as she was with her training under her Haruno sensei as well as the Academy taskmasters. But it still niggled at her, that she would overlook another shinobi. Sakura estimated that he was at least five or six years old than her, possibly more. Within that time, he should have had an established career, even if he was still a gennin. Surely at some point he must have passed her in the street?

And what of their peculiar matching uniforms? The colors weren't Konohagakure's. And they certainly weren't flattering.

Sakura was startled from her analysis when Kakashi's hand descended on her shoulder. "Looks like you get to set the standard," Kakashi told her with that eye-crinkling smile. "Good luck."

She regarded her sensei seriously. "I hope I won't have to rely on luck, sensei."

Kakashi crouched down next to her, so that their eyes were level. He sighed. "There's something very strange about having to tell this to a genin, but Sakura, remember that this _is _a test. Don't use fatal force first."

"But second is fine?" she inquired cautiously.

For though Konohagakure was extremely peaceful as a whole, there were those among its population who liked the decadent taste of ambition achieved through easy, brutal means better than the starvation of stringent morals. Orochimaru was a prime example of that. Her first lessons had prepared her well for the reality of the world, not the rosy illusion Konoha tried to foster. Sakura could hardly see the point, for it seemed that it would only hurt more to believe in the illusion and discover it to be false than to find contentment in reality.

Kakashi searched her eyes, though she couldn't imagine what for. "If you feel that your life is in danger, yes."

Sakura nodded gravely. "I understand, Kakashi-sensei." Internally, she frowned, for that made it even more difficult not to violate Shiki-dono's mandate. A prolonged match, with her nerves as raw as they were, made it probable that she would slip into the First Flower. And with so many eyes on her, the slip would not be looked on favorably. Using a kekkei genkai in the field was one matter, but here? Shiki-dono would execute her for certain, even if she was his heir.

So it must be ended quickly. That was the thought foremost in her mind as she descended the stairs, meeting her opponent in the center of the ring. "You have been chosen for the first match," the referee announced, "Are there any objections?"

"No," her opponent answered swiftly.

"No, sir," Sakura replied in a measured voice, still intent on gathering what information she could about her opponent before the match proper. His clothes were dirty, which indicated a close range fighter, but he himself was unharmed underneath the grime of the forest, which could be either attributed to his skill or that of his medic. The fact that his teammate was a medic also increased the probability that he was a close range fighter, as the medic program as outlined and instituted by Senju Tsunade took medic-nin out of direct combat in favor of a support role.

"Then if you're ready, let the match begin," the strained voice of the referee announced, backing out of the way as her opponent crouched, a haze of blue chakra enveloping his right hand, even as his left slipped a kunai from his pouch.

_Standard opening move, _Sakura thought irritably as she dodged it, closing the distance between them quickly. She moved without projecting killing intent, for fear that her own desire to cause harm might trigger the budding process. One of her own kunai coming to hand, she flicked it at her opponent, who mirrored her earlier dodge. However, just as it sailed safely past his shoulder, Sakura brought her fingers together in a focusing seal and exploded the gaily waving tag that he seemingly hadn't noticed.

Though, as he reappeared quite near her and she had to flip out of the way, concrete cracking from the force of his blow, she had to upgrade her opinion of his abilities. But this was all simple taijutsu.

Slipping in behind him, Sakura swept him off his feet, but his glowing hand caught hold of her arm and in a flash, the older ninja had her beneath him on the ground, arm twisted behind her back, almost a mirror of how Kakashi-sensei had pinned Sasuke in their first meeting. Sakura's eyes narrowed, for while the hold itself was uncomfortable, he wasn't exerting enough pressure to break her arm or pop her shoulder out of socket. Focusing beyond the pain, Sakura discovered a leeching sensation.

Eyes widening, she quickly used her off hand, which the fool wasn't controlling in favor of yanking her head back by her hair, to unsheathe a kunai and jam it deep in his leg. The pain was enough to make him loosen his grip long enough for Sakura to break free, retreating a few steps to a safe distance.

Rather than giving her time to evaluate, Yoroi charged in again and they exchanged a flurry of quick blows. _Yes, that's it, _Sakura realized. _He can sap my chakra. _Each blow stole a little more. Sakura was willing to let the stalemate continue as she tracked the rate of absorption. She discovered it was annoying, but while she looked terrible, bruised and stinking from her encounter with the snake and the days in the forest, her chakra level was sufficient to assure her a good thirty seconds or more before her combat abilities began to decline, even if he pinned her.

With that in mind, Sakura allowed him to take her down, her head impacting hard against the floor as he pressed her head down with all the strength in his bulky forearms. "You're...stealing my chakra," she hissed the accusation.

He laughed, the self-satisfied laugh of someone who thinks they have done something remarkable and are pleased with themselves about it. "You finally caught on, huh?"

Sakura struggled not to sneer. A panicking genin might be trapped with a hold like this, but his position exposed to her the most vulnerable portions of her body. With one hand occupied in draining her chakra, he only had one hand left to defend. She had two and she was almost certain she was quicker than he, though he was stronger. "No," she said, "I noticed some time ago. The question is," and she strained upward, forcing him to put more pressure on her forehead, "can you drain my chakra before I disembowel you?" And, quicker than the words, she did just that, burying a kunaim deep in his abdomen. When he wrenched away instinctively, Sakura followed him, intent on making it a tearing movement, but at the last minute she remembered Kakashi-sensei's warning and retracted her blade, which came free with a sucking sound.

Blinking, Sakura could feel the beginnings of an incredible headache. Adrenaline had staved it off for a moment, but now the initial flood was beginning to wane. She did not think it was a concussion, but she was in no position to judge that.

She stared evenly at her opponent. "I've likely perforated something," she offered helpfully as the ninja clutched his abdomen. "If it's your stomach, you only have a matter of hours until your own stomach acid destroys your internal organs. I would recommend surrendering now and seeking immediate medical attention. Your ability does absorb chakra-but you seem unable to control the rate of absorption. You can also only do so with the palm of your right hand, which means that if you wished to continue this battle, you would have to engage me at close range or with long-range techniques. Unfortunately for you, it appears that your long range technique is extremely limited. Your physique suggests that you are accustomed to using a combination of brute strength and your ability to overpower your opponents, but your abdominal wound will severely limit your core strength unless you have remarkable pain tolerance."

Her opponent grunted in reply and Sakura took a few confident steps forward, staying just outside of his reach. Another kunai was already in her hand. Feeling her emotions slipping away, Sakura projected the rage she had felt at Orochimaru's attack, born of fear, as a wall of killing intent, brutal and perhaps not as controlled as she intended, for she felt a chorus of gasps and felt the interest of a dark _something _suddenly focused on her.

But she did not relent, instead amplifying her intent with her confused feelings of worry and concern for Jun, her irritation at Sasuke for being a passive victim of the Sannin, endangering them all, painting Orochimaru's visage over the enemy before her. Without her willing it, she felt Shiho-nii manifest behind her, his sleeves and hair billowing. She pressed down on her need for victory, shaping it into a long, thin needle, which she drove deep into the imagined smooth muscle of her opponent's heart. She thought she could almost feel the organ as it stuttered, then stopped.

Time stretched between her and her opponent as he slowly fell to his knees, then wavering, collapsed on his side. "Sakura!" Shiho-nii reprimanded her sharply.

With one last dark look at her opponent, Sakura dispersed her killing intent. "You shouldn't have taken my chakra," she murmured as he gasped, his heart resuming normal function. "It appears to amplify that technique."

She watched on blankly as medics swarmed around her fallen opponent like white cockroaches, then she turned expectantly to the referee, who coughed into his hand. "Winner, Haruno Sakura!" he declared.

The guilt didn't hit her until she met Shiho-nii's eyes, which conveyed deep disappointment. _I thought you were a better person, _they said. _You wanted to be better than what you were born to be._ But then, without a single word, he disappeared. And with his absence, Sakura's victory became hollow. It was with a mechanical march up the steps. Even when Suna no Gaara's bloodthirst lashed out as she passed, she only frowned more deeply and moved on, ready to be scolded by Kakashi-sensei. In fact, by the time she reached Kakashi's side, tears were already leaking from her eyes.

Reading her expression, Kakashi sighed and crouched down in front of her again, taking gentle hold of her upper arms. Speaking to her in a very low voice as the next match was announced, warning her teammates off with a look, he said, "Sakura, look at me."

Meeting his single eye, Sakura tensed. Kakashi offered her a small smile, but she was not reassured. Shiki-dono had long ago separated that expression from being linked with comfort in her mind. "I think I've made you a little oversensitive about moderation. I'm not going to yell at you. Yes, he was a Konoha ninja. But that level of injury isn't unusual in this exam."

Sakura shook her head. "It's not that. He was draining my chakra. Many of the genin are already approaching chakra exhaustion from the forest. It wouldn't take much to kill someone." She bit her lower lip. "But I offered him the chance to surrender, then before he could decide one way or the other, I-."

Kakashi-sensei understood. "Killing intent. But did you do it in the expectation it would do what it did or did you intend that it reinforce your message?"

Sakura replied to him as honestly as she could. "I knew that killing intent could be used like that," and she leaned closer to Kakashi, who turned his head slightly so that her lips were closer to his ear, "Shiki-dono can," and she felt him start at the name, but she soldiered on, "but I've never been able to do it like that. He had just absorbed my chakra. It probably amplified it, like it was a genjutsu. That's why..." she whispered.

Kakashi patted her head reassuringly. "He'll be fine. Now, since you've made it into the finals, let's set back and enjoy the rest of the matches, neh?"

Sakura nodded, quickly wiping away the saline trails. She did not think Kakashi understood that she did not feel guilty for the shinobi's injuries, rather because she had fallen short of Shiho-nii and Kakashi-sensei's expectations, but his care was unusual. Unexpected. For Kakashi-sensei had always seemed rather distant. As if he didn't want to become too emotionally involved with them, but sometimes she got the sense that he was growing attached to them despite himself.

But though he had just comforted her, his eyes as he stood were on Sasuke.

-X-X-X-

Though the dull throbbing in her head continued and Shiho-nii maintained a stony silence even as he rematerialized, Sakura admired the battle that followed her own. It was too subtle to quite call it panache, but Shino certainly had a sense of dramatic timing and style, as well as an extremely developed jutsu for a genin. If not for the fact that it took time for the psychic link between symbiotic parasites and host to develop and his physical immaturity meant that his colonies were still small, Sakura would say the Aburame's skills settled him quite comfortably in the chunin range.

But despite these things, Sakura was more aware than many of her classmates that keeping talented students like Shino in the Academy for the duration was something new to Konohagakure and probably unique to their village. Any other village would not have had such a diverse range of skill levels in their graduating class-the system typically made it unnecessary for things like the bell test. Only the most skilled or those who survived the Academy program graduated, which lead to a greater diversity of ages on the same team, rather than the neat arrangement of their class into triads.

She watched the next fight with active interest, as it was the first battle that featured two people who had not been among the members of her graduating class. Though short, it was enlightening, revealing that Suna's Puppets Corps was still a strong influence in Sunagakure if they were teaching it as a primary discipline to genin. Though nothing like the stories she had heard or read of the infamous Chiyo, the Spider of Many Poisons who'd had a vicious rivalry with Senju Tsunade during the last war, or her grandson, Sasori of the Red Sands, the one they called the Scorpion and who had developed the modern Puppet Corps, it _was _pretty impressive.

Most genin didn't have chakra control developed enough to use the puppetry jutsu, which called for precision equal to or better than medical jutsu, which might have explained why those two fields often overlapped in Suna, providing medics with a offensive style that used minimal chakra and kept them safe from the heat of battle, but did not limit their activities like Tsunade's program often did. Each style required time and talent to develop, often to the neglect of the other. Each village simply chose the one they found less important, so Konoha had medic-nin with poor or only basic battle abilities, while Suna's medical program was almost seven years behind the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Not all of this was basic Academy knowledge-Shiki-dono wouldn't acknowledge a _stupid _heir, after all, but Sakura still frowned every time Naruto or Sasuke exclaimed over things that should be common knowledge. The libraries, even the small one at the Academy, maintained collections of Bingo books for the last thirty years, the truly classified missing-nin removed for security purposes, but by their expressions she doubted that they had ever bothered to research the specializations of other villages.

For their sake, she hoped neither of them faced Temari. If her fan was any indication, she had inherited a strong elemental ninjutsu affiliation with wind, which neither of her teammates would be prepared to counter. Sakura was sure _she _was prepared to counter it. Wind was tricky. It wasn't like earth or water or fire. Wind was an invisible force that could be used with deadly effect. Shiki-dono was proof of that.

It wasn't until she heard Naruto's whoop that she realized the next match had been announced. Quick eyes glanced at the screen and she realized that Naruto had been paired with a kunoichi from their class. Yamanaka Ino. She knew little enough about the kunoichi herself, but her clan was known for their interrogation techniques. Sakura would never belittle the T&I squad, but what they did was the equivalent of ninja office work. Rarely in the field and rarely matched against an opponent who wasn't already in custody, Sakura doubted the level of clan jutsu the kunoichi would have been able to master would be much use in the arena.

So, she too was glad for Naruto. "I'm gonna own this match," Naruto crowed, thrusting his hand out for a fist bump that went unacknowledged by his teammates. His enthusiasm didn't dim, though. Kakashi wished him luck and Sakura finger-waved him toward the steps.

"Don't celebrate a match you haven't won yet," Sakura called after him.

Without turning, he waved his hand dismissively. "Just you wait, Sakura-chan!"

"Hey!" Ino challenged, hands on hips before she marched down the stairs, "Don't get cocky yet, Naruto! Unless some sort of miracle happened, this match is going to end just like it did in the Academy. With you lying on the floor. Beaten," she said with the smug assurance of someone who had won many times before.

When they had both reached the floor, the sickly referee announced, "Fourth match: Yamanaka Ino versus Uzumaki Naruto. Are there any objections?"

Naruto punched one hand into his open palm. "Only that it took so long to get here."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Not from my side."

"Then if you're ready, let the match begin."

-X-X-X-

Naruto grinned as Ino charged into the fight. For a kunoichi, Ino was monumentally aggressive, which was part of the reason she'd won the top kunoichi slot and defended it from all comers. She wasn't afraid of hurting others or being hurt, she would psychologically railroad an opponent if left an opening, and she had a solid mastery of the Academy basics. She was a _very_ good genin, but she put too much stock in her "ninja dignity."

She was also easily angered, vain, and afraid of most things that had more than four legs. So many years in the Academy together had left a deep impression of her personality on Naruto, who blocked her first strike and turned this brief first encounter into a taijutsu scuffle that ended when Ino planted a solid kick in his stomach, sending him tumbling toward the wall and gasping for breath.

But rather than pressing her advantage, she smirked. "What's the matter, Na-ru-to?" she turned the syllables of his name into a mocking taunt.

Naruto grinned more widely, "Nothing, Ino." Forming the hand seal, he soon had Ino surrounded by clones, which she eyed disdainfully.

"Naruto, with your level of skill, it will take more than replication to beat _me._" She punctuated this statement with a powerful roundhouse kick that caused the nearest clone to disappear in a cloud of dust.

Naruto was a little offended. His taijutsu wasn't that bad. It had been rock-steady in the middle of the class, his position only ruined by poor attendance and dismal test scores. And he knew that he'd improved tons since he'd started training with Sasuke and Kakashi. Sparring with them meant either upping his level of skill or eating dirt constantly and Naruto didn't have the kind of personality to allow the latter.

So Naruto _knew _he had improved, because he could put even Sasuke on the defensive now without resorting to tricks. But with tricks? Sasuke might have been lauded as a genius, but his imagination was nothing to write home about. Things he regarded as silly or stupid kicked his ass all the time. Well, Naruto admitted in fairness, most of the time. And the naked woman thing never got old when used against Kakashi-sensei, until the shock had worn off and Naruto had started feeling just a smidge violated whenever Kakashi fought his well-endowed blonde version.

Naruto had been terrible at most jutsu in the Academy. It wasn't until the tree climbing exercises in the Land of Waves that he had realized his problem. He'd been using too much chakra, as the tree had demonstrated violently when it had exploded from beneath his feet or his henge had disappeared, or too little, like when he'd slipped from the tree or when his henge was deformed. Well, that and the henge assignments had been terrifically boring. Strutting around town as a naked lady and making grown men faint? That was hilarious. Turning into Iruka-sensei and being graded on being accurate to life? Not so much.

And he knew Ino and Sasuke both would probably give him the beating of his life for this later, but, really, he couldn't turn down such an obvious advantage. Even if it did mean transforming himself into a totally naked Uchiha. Or, rather, eight totally naked Uchiha.

Several girlish shrieks of mingled embarrassment and delight came from the stands and he could almost hear Kakashi-sensei groan. He did hear Sasuke's harsh, "Naruto!" but he paid him no mind, focusing instead on the slack-faced Ino, who was simultaneously turning very red and trying very hard not to let her eyes travel lower than his collarbones.

"This is sexual harassment!" she protested in a tight, thin voice. "Naruto, change back right now!"

Knowing it would piss Sasuke off, he deepened his voice just as bit below Sasuke's usual level as he asked, "What's wrong, Ino? Don't like what you see?"

"Ye-Naruto! This is a match!"

Naruto raised a hand and beckoned her forward. "C'mon. I'm waiting."

_That _finally set her off enough to have her charging forward again, but her concentration was ruined. It was only a short time before she left a gaping hole in her defense, one he was quick to take advantage of, punching her hard enough in the stomach that the breath rushed out of her lungs before she started vomiting and trying to breathe at the same time. While she was gagging on her hands and knees, Naruto symbolically tapped the back of her neck with a kunai, dispelling his henge at the same time.

He stared expectantly at the referee, who coughed into his fist, then announced, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto grinned broadly, then turned his attention back to Ino. "Hey, you gonna be okay?" he inquired.

"Give me five minutes, then I'm going to beat your face in, Uzumaki," she snarled.

Naruto backed away. "Yeah, you'll be okay."

When he reached the second level, he noticed that Kiba sent him a dirty look as he crouched next to Hinata, who was blushing so red that Naruto was surprised she had enough blood to keep shaking her head like that and covering her eyes.

Sasuke was scowling at him so deeply Naruto was afraid he was going to strain something. "What did you think you were doing?" he growled.

"Winning," Naruto declared, shooting him the victory sign. "Oh, come on," Naruto complained when Sasuke didn't relax. "It wasn't like it was actually you out there." He peered at his teammate more closely. "Are you embarrassed? Because it looks like you're blushing."

Kakashi's hand clamped down on Sasuke's shoulder, preventing him from enacting the violence clearly written on his expression. "That has to be breaking some sort of rule!" Sasuke protested.

Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, it's kunoichi who usually get the honeypot missions, but the reverse happens on occasion. You won't get the supplementary courses until you hit puberty, but Ino should have been able to overcome her embarrassment. She knew it was only a jutsu, after all. And there are many genjutsu that use seduction rather than fear or pain as their core element for distraction. However, Naruto, you really _shouldn't _have done that to a female comrade," he told the blonde sternly. "Apologize to Ino once the matches finish."

"But Kakashi-sensei...," Naruto whined without any real enthusiasm, because upon reflection he thought Ino would have preferred that he transform all his clones into giant spiders with those creepy, clicky mandibles.

Kakashi kept his hand on Sasuke's shoulder as he forcefully turned the other genin toward the arena and directed his attention to the next match. It was the rude Sand chick and a girl with panda hair, so he felt free to glance over at Sakura to gauge her reaction to his transformation.

Apparently feeling his gaze on her, Sakura turned her head slightly and raised a brow. Completely unaffected. Naruto grinned and the very edge of Sakura's lips tugged upwards. But then her eyes went back to the match, calculating and intent, and Naruto eagerly aped her.

-X-X-X-

When his name finally came across the screen, Sasuke was very, very pleased. His opponent, Tsuchi Kin, seemed to share his sentiment, though her expression seemed more a leer than battlelust. He made a mental note to beat Naruto within an inch of his life when Kakashi wasn't watching.

* * *

><p>AN: I will also be posting this A/N at the beginning of the next chapter when its released because I've gotten so many guest reviews asking why I don't like Sasuke. I like guest reviews, generally, but if you're going to ask questions you actually want answered in a timely manner, please sign in. Or be prepared to recheck chapters so I can use the bulletin board method.

**I don't dislike the Sasuke of Part One. **In Part One, he and Sakura were my favorite characters. One because he was already interesting and the other because I saw the potential that was never realized in the manga but gave me plenty of territory to explore in fanfiction. In Part Two, Sasuke was still talented to the point of stretching credulity, but emotionally I favored Itachi, long before the revelation actually came out. And then we got to the War arc and I've stopped reading.

In this fic, besides changing up Sakura, I'm using underutilized character traits that are hinted at in the manga but never explored. The anime opens with Naruto running from jounin after a prank on a huge scale. Therefore, though we never see it in battle, Naruto must be both a trickster (though with a twelve year old's sense of humor) and somewhat skilled at skulking about, which would be only reasonable after years of mistrust and verbal abuse from the villagers-which, having endured from such a young age must also have given him some survival skills, though we never see them. I am not really giving him new skills, just having him utilize ones that are often forgotten so we can pound on enemies shounen-style. And as to his mid-class taijutsu rather than bottom of the class? Sure, Naruto isn't in the range of Sasuke or even Kiba, but there are also a ton of faceless genin in their class who don't make the final cut. Naruto couldn't be absolutely bottom of the class in everything, especially something like taijutsu that doesn't make use of much chakra. And, again, I think at least in reality there would be a few villagers who would take the harassment to physical abuse, so in this world I imagine that while Naruto isn't much of a trained shinobi, he knows some dirty street fighting tricks that kata would never teach.

As to Sasuke, I am not putting him down. But, because he has spent his entire childhood being lauded for his skills, I don't feel the need to reproduce them in full here. Kakashi is rarely impressed with anything, Naruto would never admit the blatant superiority of his opponent, and Sakura is making unfair comparisons-Shiki is barely human and Shiho-nii enjoys a kind of deified status in her mind . And these, along with Sasuke's, are the only three viewpoints you get. I am taking away Sakura's hero worship because it is part of my greater plan for Sasuke. I am breaking down his character so I can build it up again in a manner more suitable to this fic-just in the same way that a basic training program for the military would do. Sasuke, in Part One, had many unexpectedly warm aspects to his character. This was, as a matter of course, overshadowed by his arrogance and basic belief in his superiority over the other genin. I am making him face his weaknesses and grow stronger as a person before I let him advance as a shinobi. I will give him the Sharingan. I will give him battle prowess (not that he doesn't possess it already-but I'm not spoiling his battle with Kin, which I have already planned out and it won't change). But not until he's developed the areas in which he is severely lacking. It is necessary so that you don't have to read the millionth Sasuke defects from Konohagakure arc. Been there, did that in Five Kingdoms. So, if you must see it as criticism of his character, look on it as constructive criticism. I have not taken anything away from Sasuke except his development of the Sharingan and while I've given Sakura a new skillset and outlook, I have not really added anything to Naruto's character, except for making him use already developed skills in manner of a half-way intelligent person. Look past this short term equality between the team members, in the sense that both Sakura and Naruto have already won their battles, to the long term.

Wow, that turned into more of an essay than I expected. At any rate, please keep reading and reviewing, because feedback is always interesting. Especially when I try something a little different from the norm.


	12. Of Men and Dogs (Part II)

Disclaimer: The entire Naruto franchise belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. Some of the dialogue was lifted straight from Viz Media's sub of the series, specifically episode 43.

A/N: You've probably not noticed unless you've been re-reading obsessively, but I _have _been working on my stories. It's simply been in a more editorial mode, as I am a compulsive re-writer. I'd made it through the first chapter of this fic and three of _Curlew_ before prodding reviews and one really fantastic piece of fanart made me feel guilty enough to write this, because I've known how this fight would proceed before I wrote the first part. brokenmaelstrom deserves the thanks for that.

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Twelve-

Of Men and Dogs (Part II)

Sasuke seethed as he took his place in the arena. Naruto was an idiot and Kakashi was enabling said idiot, so that made him equally as guilty in his humiliating prank. His ears burned and he could hear the high-pitched whispers of kunoichi.

It was an enormous loss of face, both personally and to the Uchiha. And that was intolerable. Unacceptable. His lips twitched upward faintly as Tsuchi Kin marched down the stairs, her ridiculous and impractical hair following the stiff movement of her hips. Everything about her spoke of confidence, but though she'd leered at him earlier, she wore her sensuality oddly. She was different from his former classmates or the single kunoichi jounin-sensei. Clad in a flak jacket and wearing camo fatigues in a desert or urban pattern at odds with the forested environment they'd just exited, she seemed a kunoichi only nominally, as if her gender was a matter of chance and not something she'd embraced.

But that hair revealed the pretense for what it was. Slick, glossy hair almost to the floor. Unless it was a kekkei genkai, it was nothing more than a vanity. Tsuchi Kin was deeply conceited. She was also either extremely talented at taijutsu, which was unlikely, or she preferred distance combat.

"Let's get this over with," Sasuke growled.

Tsuchi grew more serious then, lips pressing into a thin line. Her hands went to her hips. His mother would have scolded her for the way she hunched her shoulders forward and slouched, which made her look sloppy rather than intimidating. "If you think it'll be that easy, I'll this quickly," she promised.

Sasuke ignored the proctor as he gave them the go-ahead. Closing the distance between them quickly, he decided to test her taijutsu, to see if it was as poor as he anticipated. She ducked beneath his sweeping high kick, but he was easily able to avoid her counterstrike, landing slightly behind her and transitioning to a kidney jab that she sidestepped partially, his fist catching her in the side, most of the force lost.

He recovered more quickly than she was able to and his confidence grew. As he'd thought from the stiff way she held her hips when she walked, Tsuchi had limited flexibility for a kunoichi without the strength of a shinobi to make up for it. Neither was she quick, though her technique was sound enough.

She ducked beneath his next strike, attempting to sweep his feet from beneath him, but Sasuke turned the technique on her and caught her just behind the knee with his foot, sending her sprawling when her wrists proved too weak to accommodate the extra momentum. But she skittered backward like a spider as he attempted to close the distance again, using a back handspring to rise to her feet. Now she looked angry, sweeping a stray strand of hair behind her shoulder impatiently. "That you're all that, huh?" she challenged. "But taijutsu? From an Uchiha? That's a little bit disappointing."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "For you, anything more would be overkill."

She snorted, then tossed a handful of senbon at him. Tiny jingling noises, like bells, roused his suspicion as he dodged them. The addition of bells could be nothing but a distraction, intended to disguise other senbon, for bells altered the flight pattern of the lightweight weapons, drastically reducing their range as the bells pulled the tips down. He used a similar technique, though his shuriken had to be thrown almost instantaneously in order to disguise them, while the naked eye had difficulty tracking senbon in flight.

_If I had Sharingan_-, he thought with frustration, tossing the thought aside as he flashed outside the broad array of a second barrage.

_Why senbon? Why bells? _A tinkling noise from behind distracted him for a moment, but he blocked the senbon he was too late to dodge with his forearm. It hurt, certainly, but this would turn into a war of attrition if she intended to defeat him two senbon at a time. There had to be a further strategy, one he wasn't seeing, or she was simply monumentally stupid.

Because in a war of attrition, the army with the greater resources inevitably won. And he had speed, strength, and technique on his side.

The bells jingled again, but he ignored them. _Even without Sharingan I-_

His world tilted and swayed, nausea roiling in his stomach as he stumbled, collapsing onto his knees. He struggled to rise, but a complete lack of balance threatened to topple him.

Tsuchi's smug voice penetrated the haze. "That happens to anyone who hears my bells. The sound vibration of this special bell reaches the brain directly from the ear drum. First, disorientation and a loss of balance. Then it will make you hallucinate."

Grimacing, Sasuke bit down on his lip until he drew blood, but it failed to break the genjutsu. Auditory genjutsu was rare, enough so that no immediate counter-strategy emerged in his mind. Though he knew it was probably futile, as if by reflex his hands rose to his ears, but deadening the sound did not deaden the effects.

"You can't avoid the sound of my bell by doing _that_," Tsuchi informed him, the last word splintered and reverberating as she seemed to multiply before his eyes. "You can't do anything, can you?" she gloated. "Well, I'll cook you slowly." She held up a handful of senbon to emphasize her point.

_Senbon again? _Sasuke glowered at his opponent, who seemed to shift even as he watched, so he could form no guess as to how many false Tsuchi cloaked the real one. _Kunai would finish the battle more quickly. _But if she was a sadist, it was to his advantage. The longer she prolonged the battle without finishing him decisively, the more time he had to discover a way to defeat her.

Pressing his eyes closed, he didn't flinch as two senbon sunk deep in his shoulder. When he opened them, he found he was staring into the stands. His eyes met indifferent jade, waiting patiently for the battle to end in either his victory or defeat, multiplied by Tsuchi's hallucinatory genjutsu until it seemed as if he was entirely surrounded by those apathetic eyes.

It was eerie, but also strangely calming. Empty of expectation, they didn't see him as the last of the Uchiha, upon whom all the hopes of the clan rested. They didn't see one of the prodigies of their generation. Nor did they see the younger, less gifted brother of Itachi Uchiha. Sakura expected very little of him. And that set him free.

With a grunt, he absorbed the impact of another pair of senbon.

"Are you just going to sit there like an idiot?" Tsuchi said, punctuating the statement with an oddly girly giggle. "So much for the Uchiha."

_Bitch. _Calling to mind her explanation of the jutsu, Sasuke suddenly smirked.

"Something funny?"

"Not yet," he said, concentrating his chakra and calling it up from his belly, into his throat, then spewing it out of his mouth as fire, as sustained and as intense a flame as he could manage, pouring most of his chakra into the jutsu.

Sweeping around, still on his knees, he razed the arena, the surface of the concrete blackening. Tsuchi had leapt well out of the way, her threads intact. She tugged on them, bells jingling merrily. "That almost singed my hair," she complained as she returned to the floor, striding very near to him. "Just for that, I'll end this quickly."

Sasuke looked directly into her eyes. "Oh?" He flung a wide barrage of kunai, one passing so near her face that she had to lean slightly to the side, her attention momentarily distracted as her eyes tracked it. When her attention returned to him, she found him gone. Tsuchi stiffened as she felt the cold touch of metal at her throat, Sasuke's other hand twisted in her hair near to her skull so she couldn't draw backwards. "Thanks for explaining your trick," he told her.

"Why?" she hissed, head tilted uncomfortably back as far as his grip would allow to avoid his blade.

"They're special bells," he said. "Any imperfection or change in the metal will change the tone, breaking the genjutsu. I can't produce a fire hot enough to melt metal, but I can distort it. Call it," he ordered the proctor.

He coughed into his hand. "Winner! Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto had his hands laced behind his head as he returned to the balcony. "Boring!" he declared.

"Congratulations, Sasuke-san," Sakura told him politely, glancing at him briefly before returned her attention to the match board.

"Hn," he hummed in reply, rubbing at the places where the medic-nin had extracted the senbon before letting him return to the audience. "All of us are in the finals," he commented.

"Yes," Sakura agreed. Her eyes strayed across the arena to the red-headed boy from Suna.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye for Kakashi, who seemed to have been called away, Sasuke moved closer to her. "Something wrong?" he asked in a low voice.

She looked over at him. Whatever had upset her about her match seemed forgotten for the moment. "Gaara-san will be the real threat in the finals," she reported.

A brow rose as Sasuke considered the certainty with which she'd delivered that statement.

"Watcha mean?" Naruto inquired from her other side.

"Why him?" Sasuke asked, pretending that Naruto hadn't spoken. He earned a sulky glare from the blonde, but he intended to continue ignoring his existence until he apologized.

"Everyone on this balcony kills for a reason. For the mission, the village, for pay, for glory-those are all 'acceptable' reasons. Gaara-san's the kind of shinobi who kills because he likes the color of blood."

Sasuke was silent a moment. "And why do you kill, Sakura?"

She gave him an unreadable look. "You were distracted during your match," she observed.

"Hn."

Sakura fell silent as the next match was announced and though Naruto was as animated as ever, Sakura seemed pensive. Sakura was talkative only when nervous, but this was more than her usual reserve.

"Why were you crying after your match?" he asked in a low voice, the question almost lost in the noise of the crowd. "Was it because he was a Konohagakure shinobi?"

Sakura glanced at him. "No," she said after a moment. "In battle, the identity of your opponent is irrelevant." A long silence led him to believe he would have no further answer, but then she said, "I had already won. There was no need to-," she trailed off, a brief look of frustration crossing her features. "I did something unnecessary. And because of that, I felt I had disappointed someone whom I care for very much. That was why I was crying."

Another long silence. "Were you surprised I won?" he asked at last. He was surprised by the question, more surprised by the vulnerability he felt asking Sakura her opinion of his match. Since the massacre, he had been mostly indifferent to the praise of his sensei, knowing that they had spoken the same words in relation to _that man_, knowing that some of them saw him as only a pale shadow of _him. _

Sakura sighed. "Not really, Sasuke-san." And she was silent.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Shiho-nii had softened to her with her admission to Sasuke-san, but she could still he was still upset. And here, with all these people surrounding her, she could not apologize to him directly. Shame kept her from meeting his eyes, but Shiho-nii was no longer bound by physical limitations.

He manifested before her, wide sleeves blooming as he seemed to settle from some higher place. "Sakura," he said softly. "Sakura, look at me. Please."

Biting her lip, Sakura did as Shiho-nii asked.

"Don't ever forget this feeling," he told her, his insistent tone at odds with his expression. He wore a terribly sad smile, almost as if he was the one who wanted to cry. "Guilt makes us human. Shame makes capable of functioning in society. Regret keeps us thoughtful. When you can no longer feel those things, you become like Shiki-dono. An existence that approaches the boundary between ningen and youkai, between man and monster. It will be a long and difficult road for us, Sakura," he told her, "because neither of us can help our natures. After this, you will become chūnin, then jounin. The battles will get harder. Bloodier. And in a few years, your body will come into its own. That is when the Flower flourishes. That is all the future holds for us."

Tears gathered in the corner of Sakura's eyes, but she blinked them away.

"But I will never, ever abandon you, Sakura," Shiho-nii promised. "I will never leave you. That is the one gift of the Haruno, even when the rest of our existence seems like a curse."

"Thank you, Shiho-nii," she mouthed and his smile grew less sad, but she could not say it was happy, either.

"Shiki-dono would think nothing of your actions today. Nor would my mother. And, to me, what was alarming wasn't really what you did to that ninja, though it was part of it. A Haruno must treat their words as binding contracts, for when you are lost to the First Flower or deeper, there will be no emotions to guide your actions. You implied that you would accept his surrender, so you must give him the opportunity to do so. But that is really secondary, Sakura."

Sakura gazed at him uncomprehendingly, for she could imagine no other reason for his disappointment.

Shiho-nii took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're unexpectedly adept at wielding killing intent, Sakura. You weren't even properly bloomed and you managed to stop his heart. Amplification because he absorbed your chakra or not, a child of the main line shouldn't have that kind of control yet."

_Not even the heir_, was the unsaid implication, but then Shiho-nii glanced down at the matches taking place below them. Sakura followed his gaze.

"Hyuuga clan," Shiho-nii remarked. He evaporated for a moment, but then he was by her side again, so _real _she almost imagined that she could touch him and feel flesh. But even though she couldn't physically reach him, she was nonetheless put at ease. Shiho-nii was such a soul of remarkable _goodness_ she couldn't imagine anything other than an evil caprice of fate had led to his being born into the Haruno clan. But though it had done nothing but ill for him, she could not imagine what her life might have been like without him in it. And that made her feel guilty. It was a guilt that only increased whenever Shiho-nii was unfailingly kind, when he promised her support, when he did everything but blame her and the main house, the Haruno bloodline, for what it had done to him.

"The one with his forehead covered is probably from their branch clan," Shiho-nii informed her and Sakura turned her attention to the combatants taking their places. "All houses have secrets, Sakura. And most of them are ugly."

Sakura didn't recognize the long-haired boy, but she watched as Hinata Hyuuga trembled beneath the weight of his glare.

"I'd heard the heiress was unreliable," Shiho-nii murmured. "Normally the outcome of this fight would be a foregone conclusion."

It was a foregone conclusion, as it turned out, except that it was not the conclusion that had been expected. Sakura had been startled to see the depths of a vitriolic hate that was obviously festering inside Hyuuga Neji. He was as different from her in skill as night from day. And ruthlessly, mercilessly, he revealed to her the disparity between them.

"This is why twins are ill luck," Shiho-nii remarked. "Only a few moments separated the birth of their fathers. When the birth order is that close and one child so much more gifted than the other, it's no wonder he resents her."

_Did Shiho-nii also carry such a resentment as a secret in his heart? _Sakura wondered.

Shiho-nii glanced over at her and interpreted her expression correctly. "The Hyuuga are different from us, Sakura," he told her gently. "Birth order is what separates them. The separation between their main and branch clans isn't something physical, like the Haruno. For us, that runs bone deep. But for them, it is only the main branch's monopoly on their jutsu that creates the schism."

With dawning understanding, Sakura looked down on the uneven battle. _For us, _she thought, _choice is only an illusion. Without the branch houses, we main house members are little more than progressive sociopaths. And without us, the branch house members can only look forward to an early grave. The trade is uneven, but a trade it remains. What does their main house offer to their branch houses? _

Nothing, apparently, that could stem the vengeful actions of Hyuuga Neji. Sakura watched silently, emotions swirling dizzily in her heart. The part of her that was Haruno heir sneered at the flinching and ultimately ineffective Hyuuga Hinata. She seemed to draw from a previously hidden well of confidence at Naruto's encouragement, but she had already lost what respect Sakura would have given to her.

_Stand alone, _Shiki-dono's lesson reverberated through her, _or die alone. _

"How weak."

She didn't realize she'd said it aloud until Naruto rounded on her. "Hinata isn't weak!" he snarled.

Sakura blinked. "Yes," she asserted calmly. "She is. And compared to Neji-san, she's clumsy and slow as well. Prolonging this battle might seem like protecting her pride, but all she's doing on that floor is shaming the main house. And if Neji-san has his way," there was a wet retching sound from below, "she won't leave with her body intact." Sakura glanced over the railing to see as Hinata vomited more blood, the medic-nin rushing forward and the proctor hastily declaring the match finished.

_Don't be cruel, Sakura,_ Shiho-nii chided her. _She tried her best. _

But Sakura was staring steadily at Naruto, who was glaring at her in turn. "If you hadn't encouraged her, she might have surrendered, Naruto-san," Sakura told him evenly. "This is what happens when you encourage people to fight hopeless battles. Not everyone is like you. If she dies, how will you feel? Proud that she stood up to someone who had a clear advantage? Guilty for your part in it? Retreat isn't always defeat," Sakura parroted one of Tsubasa-sensei's old lessons. "Reflect on your reckless encouragement in the future," she ordered Naruto.

The blonde looked as if she'd struck him. "But I didn't mean-"

"Your intentions were good, yes, but what you meant has little bearing on the effect of your words. If you want to be the Hokage in the future, what you say to your shinobi could be the difference between life and death on the battlefield. Unless you're ready to sacrifice them, don't give them the kind of encouragement they can't escape."

Chastened, Naruto retreated a few steps, settling sulkily against the railing.

Sasuke was watching her, slightly wide-eyed. "You're merciless," he remarked with forced casualness, his hands hidden in his pockets.

"No, I'm not," Sakura said softly. "Someone truly merciless would have let him go on without correcting him, to learn his own lessons in the future." _Someone like Shiki-dono. _

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Sakura remembered with eerie clarity the last match. She had not thought it possible that there was someone in the world as terrible as Shiki-dono, but Gaara-san's bloodlust was so strong it burned. It was not the intensity, however, that bothered her. Shiki-dono could all but kill through will alone and Gaara-san was far from being that fearsome, but his intent was unfocused and all-consuming.

Shiki-dono was wholly amoral, but rarely actively malicious.

Shiho-nii echoed her thoughts. "That Suna child-there's something _off _about him."

Sakura shuddered. Sasuke-san had looked enthusiastic at the prospect of facing him, but Sakura had known from the moment Gaara and Lee-san's match began that if she ever faced the redhead in battle, he would undoubtedly push her beyond the First Flower. And that was not somewhere she was prepared to venture, for she had no desire to Dance, to leave behind 'good' and 'evil'.

But if Sasuke-san lost, as there was the very great possibility if he could not somehow learn to breach Gaara-san's defensive sand, it became a probability that they would eventually face each other. However, Sakura had already developed a plan if that was the case. In order to qualify for chūnin, the review board would be looking for the ability to lead a squad into battle.

And, as she had said to Naruto, a very important aspect of that ability was knowing when to retreat. If she faced Gaara-san, she would test his defenses and then cede the match. Sakura had never been brought up to place much faith in the village ranking systems, nor did the increase in pay hold much allure. Sakura had changed little of Shiho-nii's room since she moved in, replacing only those things that wore out with near-identical copies, and she intended to continue to do so.

No matter how Shiho-nii encouraged her to personalize the space, she would not gnaw away the reminders she'd been left of him as a living, breathing person.

Sakura crept into the house and hearing the sounds of Ran-oba-san conducting business in the bakery in the front, she padded silently upstairs. She paused on the landing, sensing a chakra signature that was foreign to this house, though it was not strange to her.

Sliding open the door to Shiho-nii's room, her eyes tracked a liberal trail of blood over the balcony, across the room, and onto the bed. There, Haruno Jun lay sprawled, one arm thrown across his eyes.

"Welcome home, jou-chan," he said, his voice alight with something that made her uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she crossed the room, until she was near enough to look down on him. He shifted his arm slightly so she could make out part of one eye. Petals bloomed there, and a deeply unsettling, strangely beautiful madness. He grinned fiercely, a dog's baring of teeth. "I invited your snake to play, but seems he doesn't like the sight of his own blood."

There was a wound, as if from an enormous snake's fang, in his left shoulder and other gashes from a blade, but Jun chuckled deeply. Blood seeped from his wounds from the movement and the comforter was already soaked through, but it didn't seem to matter to him.

Satisfaction fairly radiated from him. "You ought to have seen his eyes," Jun said, stretching and then half-rising. He'd lost the tie to his hair and it stuck to the tacky blood, coming out of the long braid he wore it in. The senbon that was the physical manifestation of his partner was missing.

Shiho-nii noticed before she did. "Where's Ai?" he demanded.

Jun glanced around the room carelessly. "Hiding. She's a clever girl. I eat ghosts, you see. Why don't you go to sleep for a while? I want to greet my master without dead people looking on." There was a strange pulse of chakra and an expression of shock crossed Shiho-nii's features, but his body was already evaporating. In just moments he had disappeared completely, though she could sense that he was only dormant rather than destroyed.

Sakura glanced at the man bleeding on Shiho-nii's bed. "Do something like that again," she said pleasantly, "and I will teach you regret. Shiho-nii is more precious to me than anyone."

"So for him you would do things you would never to for anyone else?" Jun chuckled again. "Pretty sentiment, jou-chan. But I don't like chains. And don't let them lie to you. All chains were made to be broken."

Sakura frowned at him, but his face was suddenly uncomfortably close to hers and he idly brushed her bangs aside. "It's a pity you're so young, jou-chan. Compliments and plenty of treats are how you teach a dog to obey your commands."

He stunk of sweat and blood, the flush of fever was on his brow, and the tang of poison was on his breath. Sakura held very still as his bloodied arms encircled her, his tongue tracing a wet path from the collar of Shiho-nii's shirt to her ear. "These eyes of ours clear away the blindness of living in the world. Jou-chan, don't ever let them tell you victory isn't the sweetest fruit."

There was something beguiling about his smile and she could feel her own kekkei genkai begin to bloom, but as the petals emerged, his pull on her lessened. Jun was consumed by his own power, whereas she had been born with absolute control over her chakra. Sakura was her own master. And through their shared blood, she was his as well.

He sighed with disappointment as she made the petals in his eyes furl back into the darkness, sagging slightly against her as his pain multiplied. "Cruel, jou-chan," he murmured. "Very cruel."

Sakura pressed against his bare chest and he flopped back onto the bed, his smile never wavering. His long hair was being stained redder by his own blood, his life slowly seeping onto the bed.

She could let him die. Haruno Jun was a monster, even by the standards of the Haruno. He had broken their one sacred trust, had killed members of his own village upon a whim, and had gleefully traded his humanity for the cold freedom of the Thousand Generation Flower.

But he was also _hers. _

Without another word, she turned her back on him and descended the stairs. And when Ran-oba-san stepped inside the living quarters of her home, Sakura made her first request of the older woman as the heir of the Haruno. The insane dog would live, in order that he could obey.


	13. The Distance Between

Disclaimer: As usual, only plot and OCs are mine.

A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers-you're the ones who encourage me to continue to write fanfiction. This chapter is dedicated to JustPretend2, who wrote me a very encouraging PM at just the right time to inspire me.

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Thirteen-

The Distance Between

Ran awoke unusually early, which given the time she had to begin preparing baked goods in order to have fresh stock on her shelves, meant that the night was little more than half over. Padding quietly through the house, she looked in on the occupants of her Shiho's room.

The bedding had all been burned and hastily replaced, Sakura choosing another dark and masculine design despite Shiho's gentle pressuring for her to choose one _she _liked. For once, Ran had approved of the girl when she'd said, without a hint of guile in her expression, "I like Shiho-nii best. Therefore, I like best what Shiho-nii likes."

Ran had thought time might temper Sakura's obsession with maintaining Shiho's living space as if he was alive, but never once had she faltered. It seemed as if she intended to continue treating him as if he was alive, even if it meant erasing herself. It was an unhealthy obsession, certainly, but compared to the other beast in the room, it was harmless.

Human eyes did not reflect light like an animal's, but Ran thought for a moment that she caught an unsettling glitter from the body stretched across the threshold of the room. But Haruno Jun did not stir, so she ignored him, at least as much as one could ignore a kunai just above one's head dangling on a fraying thread. At any moment, without warning, that tenuous thread might break.

Ran couldn't fully understand why Sakura had decided that Jun deserved to live. She hadn't seemed to fear him the way any reasonable person ought to, nor had she cringed away from the questionable "gift" of him from oyakata-sama. Though it wasn't anyone's place to question oyakata-sama, she could see that even Kagami-sama was unsettled by Jun. There wasn't a lack of main house members to be a retainer to the heir. Sakura had been fond of Haruno Tsubasa, who'd trained her so long ago. He'd have been a far more suitable choice.

_What kind of monster does he hope to turn her into? _was all Ran could think, for there could be nothing but a test underlying his actions.

Sakura followed in the footsteps of a failed heir, so it made her all the more important. Heirs had died before, of course, as many of them had challenged and died at the hands of previous oyakata-sama, but there had been cycles where it had progressed smoothly as well, the oyakata-sama dying a natural death, his heir following him, and the heir after that already in place, and perhaps a successor after that as well, given the lifespan of the main house.

In less than a decade, the meeting of the clan would be held again and Sakura's successor chosen. Ran, for Shiho's sake, placed all her faith in Sakura's survival. But no matter how much potential she saw slowly being teased into real ability from the girl, Ran still thought it was like enclosing a small child in a cage with a rabid dog.

Haruno Jun was unnatural. Not his madness. Madness was endemic among humans, always waiting to seep through weakness to stain the world red. But what he had done, destroying the soul bound in his weapon, was supposed to be impossible.

It was understood that the main house member they were assigned to would not always be grateful for forcing human compassion and empathy on them. Their kekkei genkai allowed them to live a white existence, without ever experiencing grief or regret. An existence so pure and cruel it shouldn't exist. And it was the branch clan who provided boundaries, so it was of paramount importance that they could not be ignored or discarded.

Just as their name written in blood awoke their souls, that same blood bound them to their partner, so that even if they were abandoned, the blooming of their other half called the weapon that was their body to that person. No matter how they struggled, the main house could not be free of their binding contract, for the weapons would not break or shatter.

Ran would have been less surprised had some member of the main house managed that feat. But Jun's clawed gauntlets were intact, flawless as the day that poor creature's body had been forged by Walking in the White Moon Garden. But they were dead. Just bone, preternaturally strong, the existence that had been attached to them erased.

And that, more than anything else, was terrifying. Killing a physical body was something even a child was capable of. But to learn to destroy souls-just imagining someone like the oyakata-sama capable of wielding such power made her tremble.

She could almost imagine him, that calm and chilling smile in place as he strode through a battlefield, erasing his enemy even from the cycle of rebirth without once even laying a hand on them. It was a small blessing that the kekkei genkai also quashed ambition, else Haruno Shiki would not have been a man but a calamity.

Shoving the unnerving thought aside forcefully, Ran centered herself in the present, in reality rather than possibility.

Looking beyond the wounded shinobi that had chosen to linger even after the medic-nin had left, her eyes found the little girl that was her son's lifeline, his anchor in the physical world. She was curled tightly into herself, as if she were a woodlouse, Shiho's sealing scroll settled neatly on the otherwise empty pillow beside her, "his" side of the bed carefully un-encroached upon.

While the medic-nin had looked to Jun's wounds, she and Shiho had discussed Sakura's performance in the second portion of the exam. Shiho had been disturbed by Sakura's easy use of killing intent, but Ran had been satisfied. _The child of a frog is frog, _Ran had thought, _and the one who leads the Haruno not only must inherit the fullness of the kekkei genkai, but step beyond it. Not as Jun did, to pervert it, but to control it even in others. _

How the oyakata-sama were able to control the blooming of the other members was a mystery of the position, though it was well known that main house members could tip each other into the First Flower or even further when the kekkei genkai was used in close proximity. But repression and control lay solely in the hands of the head of house.

Sakura's burgeoning abilities represented hope to Ran. She did not fear them as Shiho did, for one simple reason. Sakura was the girl her son had chosen, so Ran had decided she would believe in his judgment. Her eyes were unclouded by Shiho's emotional attachment, so she could see that the child was capable, fearsome, and single-minded.

And the day was coming when she would serve her as well.

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He'd written down their matches, staring blankly at the dark ink against white paper. _Sakura vs. Kiba. _The outcome of that match was predictable. The dog-boy had lucked out in squaring off against Chouji, but Sakura's deadly precision would decimate his sloppy and erratic attacks. The currently unnamed idiot would be facing the Hyuuga, which meant that he'd probably get his comeuppance quickly enough. The problem was his own match. _Sabaku no Gaara. _

_Gaara-san's the kind of shinobi who kills because he likes the color of blood. _Sakura's assessment rang in his thoughts. His hands clenched, crumpling the paper. _Sakura, Gaara, both of them, they're like _him. _While I..._

Sakura's voice interrupted his thoughts again. _If you don't like killing people, don't. _

His hands tugged at his fringe in frustration. "What would you understand about it?" he mumbled. Sasuke glanced at the clock on his desk, frowning as he realized he needed to leave to meet up with Kakashi and the rest of the squad.

His mood didn't improve when he saw Naruto in the distance, acting out some part of a match with Sakura looking on with her normal indifference. The exams had shown him an unexpected side of her, one that lectured when she was nervous and that was capable of cooperating with others, but now that the teamwork portion was over, she seemed content to retreat into herself. She never looked unhappy, but she was distant. As if there was somewhere else, some_one _else, she'd rather be with.

He knew that look, for he'd worn it when he first started the Academy and couldn't wait for the lectures to end so he could return home.

But he remembered going to her home, with the white-haired woman who'd been so brusque though it was her first mission outside the village. The bedroom without any hint that a girl lived in it. And it wasn't simply that she preferred boyish things, either-the style had been more suited for a man than a boy. The only other person he'd seen her associate with outside missions and the like had been that long-haired shinobi, but he'd been so unnerving that Sasuke couldn't imagine Sakura running to him for comfort.

"Ah, Sasuke!" Naruto said when he noticed him.

Sasuke ignored him and Naruto puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. "Well, fine, I'm not going to talk to you either, teme!"

_Idiot, _Sasuke thought.

"Yo!" The greeting caused all three of them to turn in surprise, glancing up to see Kakashi perched on a tree limb.

"Ah!" Naruto ducked behind Sakura. "Kakashi-sensei's _on time,_" he hissed. "Quick, Sakura-chan! It has to bean imposter!"

Kakashi frowned at him. "Now, Naruto, don't you have any faith in sensei?"

"None!" Naruto declared, pointing dramatically, still using Sakura as a kind of human shield. "Kakashi-sensei _always _late."

Sakura tilted her head to the side in consideration, then glanced back at Naruto. "In either case, why are you hiding behind me, Naruto-san?"

Kakashi sighed dramatically. "And here I thought I might tell you about the arrangements for your training."

Sasuke's attention was instantly caught. "What about it?" he demanded.

"As you can imagine, this kind of exam calls for a little bit of specialized attention. That's why I won't be training all three of you for the next month."

Naruto's blue eyes narrowed. "It's Sasuke, isn't it?" he said sourly. "Well, that's fine. But what about me and Sakura-chan?"

"There are first-rate sensei waiting for the both of you," Kakashi said with his usual eye-crinkling smile. But Sasuke could see that Naruto wasn't satisfied by that answer. _For somebody who goes on about teamwork, Kakashi, you're a real idiot, _Sasuke thought.

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_Naruto isn't happy, _Kakashi thought grimly, _but win or lose, his opponent won't go into the match with the intention of killing him. Even though it'd be the wiser course of action, Sasuke won't surrender. He's too stubborn and has too much pride to do that, even though it's not necessary to win the match in order to be promoted. He's skilled enough that a tactical retreat when faced with overwhelming force will actually work in his favor in front of the judges. They know he's capable-what they'll be looking for in his match will be how he applies his ability. Charging in recklessly will only convince them he's not ready to lead. _

Kakashi turned his attention to his scowling blond student. _Whereas in Naruto's match they'll be looking for both skill and leadership ability. The chance they'll promote him this year is low, but if he trains seriously with Ebisu, he can overcome his chakra control barrier. Ebisu is unmatched at ingraining the basics, which is what Naruto needs. There's only so far he can go on stubborn will and chakra. _

_ And as for Sakura-_

The frown behind his mask deepened. Haruno clan. Of all his students, he'd least expected troubles with family matters from her, for all the reports indicated that she was staying with a civilian relative and that her parents had also been civilians. But then there had been Haruno Jun, and then the man who'd introduced himself as Haruno Shiki. And now, someone else again. Ran, the woman who was Sakura's guardian, had interrupted him when he'd gone to her house to discuss Sakura's training program. _The Haruno clan will take care of it, Hatake-san, _she'd told him coolly. _In this case, outsiders shouldn't interfere too much. _

_ Not even her sensei? _he'd asked teasingly, but the deep-set wrinkles that framed her frown had not shifted.

The room had been quiet, even the sound of ceramic against wood as she sat her tea cup on the table muted. _It's your first time teaching students, isn't it? _she'd inquired. _Experience will teach you that there are boundaries. Your other students don't have families, so they might lean on you more than is usual, but Sakura has blood relations. _

She paused, her jade eyes cold as she looked at him. _If you are worried about who will be teaching her, Haruno Tsubasa is very much unlike the relatives you've met before. _

_ Oh? So he doesn't seem like he's moments away from becoming a mass murderer?_

Ran's lips turned up slightly and some of the frost retreated from her eyes. And, of all things, she'd laughed. _He's a Haruno. _

It had been an unsatisfying conversation, but she was right about one thing-as Sakura's sensei, he didn't have the right to interfere in her clan. The heads of families held the right of life and death over their members. The Hyuuga held the threat of pain and death over their branch clan, Aburame children weren't given an option when it came to their oft times painful colonization, and his own training had been merciless and brutal.

If they wanted to cultivate a monster rather than a human being, he could only watch and guide her as he was able. And for a child already so wise and cold, Kakashi wasn't certain that he could shake off his apathy, the emotional distance he retained with his students that protected the timid _self _that was all that remained after his family, his team, and his teacher had died. Heroic or not, justified or not, death was the end.

And for his team-Naruto who'd been born of death, Sasuke who'd looked into death's eyes and been transformed by it, Sakura who was capable of bringing it down so callously upon others-Kakashi was certain he _wanted _to ever care that much about anyone again.

So he would give Naruto what freedom he could, arm Sasuke as he wished, and never, ever flinch in the face of Sakura's family. That was all he could do for them.

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"Tsubasa-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed, startled from her contemplative mood.

The man seated comfortably next to the table waved at her. "I see you're finally tall enough to wield Shiho," he said, "How are things with my favorite cotton-candy haired little psychopath? I saw your team photo-have you decided to cultivate the dark-haired one yet?"

"Tsubasa-sensei!" Sakura scolded, ears flushing a deep red. Behind her, Shiho-nii chuckled.

"Hello, Tsubasa-san," he said warmly. "I'm somewhat surprised. We haven't seen you since-."

Tsubasa nodded. "That's what you get for being Konoha-nin. But I've defected from Iwa, so that's a non-issue now, I suppose."

Sakura crept closer, eagerly taking the seat Tsubasa-sensei indicated. "You defected? You're a missing nin?"

It was Tsubasa-sensei's turn to chuckle. "Iwa doesn't look kindly on shinobi who retire before they're at least maimed in battle. But oyakata-sama beckoned, so I came running."

That made Sakura frown briefly and Tsubasa-sensei correctly interpreted her expression. "Not so I could teach you, though you're certainly worth becoming a missing-nin for. Because our clan's leader is chosen by battle rather than through bloodright, there's no established power structure. So, the elders of the clan are free to choose their own successors. And one of them thought I was suited for it, so I live in the clan compound now."

"Is that...a good thing?" Sakura inquired cautiously.

Tsubasa-sensei hummed thoughtfully. "It's not a bad thing," he said at last. "I heard you scared Shiho in your match?"

Sakura snuck a guilty look at Shiho, but he shook his head, smiling gently. "Sakura is...unexpectedly talented with killing intent," he admitted.

"Oh? I wouldn't call that unexpected. You forget-Sakura-chan's the heir who won her way through the tunnels without you at her side. Killing intent was the key I offered her to unlock any kind of future at all."

Tsubasa-sensei made a striking contrast to Shiho, who'd settled across from him. Tsubasa-sensei had his legs crossed comfortably, his back slouched, one elbow resting on the table. His hair had a reddish sheen, overlong but carelessly brushed back from his forehead. That aura of casualness pervaded his clothing as well, somehow giving him an air of good-humored harmlessness.

"You might not remember, Sakura-chan, but I told you then. Killing intent is different for you than it will be for your peers. For them, killing intent is nothing less and nothing more than intent-a psychological tool. That's true of most Haruno as well. But for you and Shiki-dono, you're capable of pressing past that, even without the aid of the Thousand Generation Flower. It's similar to genjutsu. A man who is very talented at genjutsu can convince a man on dry land he's drowning with such thoroughness that he'll suffocate. The weaker your opponent is mentally, the harder you can strike."

He grinned then. "But what you want isn't a lecture, is it?" Tsubasa-sensei rose, running a hand through his hair. "I hope you haven't forgotten what my lessons are like, Sakura-chan. Only this time, we'll get Shiho to participate, yeah?"

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A/N: Even after all this time, I'm still pretty much amazed how absent Sakura's parents are from canon. Lee and Tenten are the only others who have such an absence of family. Also, yes, this chapter is short and generally filler, but I wanted to maintain that feeling of uncertainty and surprise that accompanied the original matches. So, next chapter, we begin the third part of the chunin exam.


	14. Down Came God (Part I)

A/N: Dedicated with good humor to Paulina Witoszek, who was never lax in reminding me how negligent I'd been in updating this story. I hope you enjoy the newest chapter. Please forgive any errors-I've just had my wisdom teeth removed, so while it gave me time to work on this chapter, the combination of discomfort and pain medication might have some unintentional side effects, such as creating a sudden inability to differentiate between homophones. Also, much thanks to the people who continue to send me incredible fanart for Five Kingdoms-fascalia's fascinating interpretation of Sakura deserves attention: fascalia*deviantart*com/art/ANBU-Sakura-taichou-RO OT-section-408681958. (And fascalia, many apologies for a delayed reply.) This is the first of three parts, each focused on the matches of a different member of Team 7.

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Fourteen-

Down Came God (Part I)

Sakura had limited curiosity concerning the training of her fellows, but she doubted they had been taken outside the village for severely _practical _lessons. As if entranced, she felt numbness climb from her fingers into her hands as a swift-moving brook turned the blood on her hands into an extravagant artistry of swirls and eddies. When Tsubasa-sensei's hand decided on her head, she nearly toppled into the water.

He chuckled at her surprise. Kneeling beside her, he grasped her hands and rubbed the blood from them swiftly, encouraging the circulation in her fingers. "The fascination will become easier to control," he told her encouragingly. "But the power over life and death isn't something so easily dismissed-the thrill you feel when you kill will never truly disappear."

Sakura frowned, glancing up at Shiho-nii, who was floating above the water. "It's not...I don't...why are we like this?" she asked Tsubasa-sensei in a quiet, uncertain voice. "And Jun says it will only get stronger, more intense. He says it's like..." she flushed and trailed off, but Tsubasa-sensei understood her meaning.

He encouraged her to dry her hands, then they settled on the warm grass, at odds with the coolness the breeze picked up from the water. Tsubasa-sensei sat with one leg pulled up near his chest, arm propped comfortably on his knee.

"Part of that conversation will wait until you're older. But for now, we'll just say that power appeals to us on a visceral level. It's neither good nor evil, so we can experience it even within the kekkei genkai. And the sensation of power is linked to the pleasure centers in our brain. When we kill, we've made the willful choice to end the existence of someone else. Someone loved and valued, someone who was someone else's child. We're stealing all of that when we kill and we're aware of it. And a part of us revels in it, because it makes us feel godlike." He glanced at her with hooded eyes, the breeze playing with his red-tinted hair. "I won't give you a pretty lie, Sakura. It's a feeling we share with serial killers and anger excitation rapists. We simply feel it more acutely, because our bloodline can strip us of other emotions and attachments. Some might say we experience it in a pure state-the state those evil men are seeking when they commit crimes."

"So, we'll always be monsters?" Sakura looked away from her teacher, concentrating on the environment around them, which exuded bucolic peace. From where she was sitting, she couldn't see the bodies. It did not matter that they had been thieves, murderers, and missing-nin themselves. If the order had come, they could have been bodhisattvas.

"I don't know that I'd call us monsters." There was a teasing lilt to Tsubasa-sensei's voice, as if he sensed her discomfort. "That's an ugly title. We are what we are, what our nature makes us. We can't change it, but we can control it. You if really wanted to, you could retire as a kunoichi and spend the rest of your life on a dirt farm in the middle of nowhere. Or, well, maybe not _you, _but a theoretical Haruno who wasn't the heir could. And they have. Sometimes they fail, but those of us who aren't Haruno Jun aren't animals. We still have the power of choice."

There was silence between them, but the hum of insects and the calls of birds erased part of the tension that Sakura felt. "Is this about killing? Or is this really about the fact you're almost guaranteed to grow up to be a sexual sadist?" Tsubasa-sensei asked dryly.

Sakura's face burned and she whipped around to face him. "Tsubasa-sensei!" she protested in embarrassment.

A crooked grin told her that was the reaction he'd been aiming for. Sakura turned a pleading glance toward Shiho-nii, but he was surveying her teacher with an aspect of benevolent long-suffering. "Shiho-nii!"

"Just ignore them, Sakura," he advised with a sigh. "They can't help their fixation with your theoretical sex life, as it appears their own is _lacking._"

Tsubasa-sensei snorted laughter. "It would be _priceless _to see you say that to Kagami-sama's face."

Shiho-nii sighed again. "Training?" he prompted.

Sakura felt a wash a gratitude toward her partner.

Tsubasa-sensei shrugged. "We're done. After this, we'll return to Konohagakure so you have a few days of rest before your exam, giving your muscles time to heal. You were more prepared for this exam the day you stepped into the Academy than most of your classmates. You just weren't physically capable of wielding Shiho yet. With a polearm, your weaknesses are amplified; easier for a half-decent opponent to exploit, even if you do have the advantage of reach. You have to have superior strength, endurance, and speed. Your weapon is heavier than just about anything in a normal shinobi's repertoire, so you have to account for that, both the good and the bad. It will allow you to bring Shiho down with crushing force, yes, but you'll need to be able to match their speed even though your weapon is exponentially heavier. And, like it or not, you're a prepubescent girl. If someone can force you to extend a confrontation, you need to be able to sustain your speed and force. Which is why I pushed you to the brink of exhaustion and made you stand up again."

Just as his gentle reminder implied, Tsubasa-sensei had subjected her to a month of extreme physical conditioning, from night hikes to forced marches burdened with bags filled with sand. All administered with good humor, but not a single ounce of sympathy. Sakura sighed and let her head rest on her knees. She only hoped that Naruto-san's and Sasuke-san's training had been as strict. And she firmly pushed away the thought that they would never need this kind of training, for they were not born to this wondrous, damnable kekkai genkai.

The day was coming when she would either have to make peace with it and herself or take some sort of action, for Sakura couldn't imagine the rest of her long, long life being lived with this constant uncertainty. But she couldn't imagine abjuring her birthright. Couldn't imagine a world in which the clan did not exist. For they were like their kekkei genkai. They were not good, but neither were they evil.

She was aware, in an abstract way, that she ought to feel something about robbed of her family, but she couldn't see it as a crime. She saw it only as soft justice, for Shiki-dono could have chosen to slaughter the participants in the uprising. An analytical part of her might have even supported it, because it would have served a reminder to the other outsiders what price would be exacted if they too found themselves inclined to dissent. Could she imagine Shiki-dono's blood smearing the length of Shiho-nii's blade? Well, she _could, _and the possibility that she would one day confront him existed, but Sakura did not _want _Shiki-dono to die.

Because Shiki-dono was something that wasn't quite human, but she still admired him. Still would feel lost without him. Jun was a monster, true, but she'd already decided he would live, simply because he was hers. And Shiho-nii. Sakura knew that in the normal course of things, they would have grown apart as they grew older, that he would have married a kunoichi in his age group, perhaps had children, might have died as an old man with only dim memories of the cousin he'd been close with during her youth. But now, she would always and forever be the first person in his heart. This thought had the potential to evolve into something darker and more possessive than it already was, but she was still a child in some ways and it was simply a child's desire to monopolize the attention of a guardian.

"Tsubasa-sensei?" she asked without raising her head.

"Yeah?"

Sakura sook her head then, shaking off her melancholy, resolving to spend less time in her own thoughts from this point forward. There was too much of life and death, good and evil, and endless philosophical questions waiting for a moment of weakness.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sakura was somewhat bemused by the format of the final section of the chunin exam. Elimination tournaments were all well and good, as that was the method by which she'd established herself as heir, but she hadn't expected it to be so _open. _It was a fact well-acknowledged that part of the power and influence of a Hidden Village was dependent on how effective the clans were at keeping their techniques secret. After all, if an enemy village was aware of and prepared to counter a technique, or worse yet, had managed to reverse-engineer it, it was no longer an effective weapon. And even within a village, sabotage was a factor as clans competed for prestige and influence.

Yet here the exam was being held in an enormous coliseum, with hundreds of shinobi and civilian observers crowding the seating area. About to watch chunin hopefuls compete again each other, many of whom wouldn't have an ounce of discretion when it came to revealing their family's techniques.

Some of them were impossible to replicate, arising from the unique physical attributes of a clan, but _still_...

_How could the Hokage trust all these people? _Sakura thought uncomfortably as she slunk to one of the visitor's entrances to watch the screening process. All it would take was a single moment of weakness to an opposing village's offer and any of these people could be flipped, could become an asset feeding valuable intelligence on the newest chunin to an unknown factor. Besides, what business was it of civilians how the ninja performed in this exam? It wasn't a bloodsport put on for their pleasure, though by their behavior, one might think it was just that.

The whole set-up was counter-intuitive to the idea of secrecy. But she had already seen her first opponent of the day, Inuzuka Kiba, reveling in the attention. She supposed the pressure of the crowd _could _encourage the combatants to give a better performance, their expectations somehow heightening the tension and giving the judges some notion of how they would perform under pressure, but all it was doing for Sakura was making her leery of using any techniques beyond those on the Academy curriculum.

"Is anyone here?" Sakura murmured to Shiho-nii, who'd been watching over the stands, searching for the presence of Haruno clan members.

"Okaa-san is sitting near the Kage balcony with Shiki-dono," he informed her. "Tsubasa-san is over there, third row up," he said, indicated with his hand the former Iwa-nin's position. Sakura didn't turn her head, but she did follow the gesture with her eyes.

"And Jun?"

"If he is here, he has forced Ai into hiding again," Shiho-nii said bitterly.

Sakura worried her lip, remaining aware of her surroundings as she considered how to reply to that emotion, which wasn't one that she'd often seen from Shiho-nii. And considering how he had died quite young and would spend the next several decades as a soul linked to an inanimate object, it was a measure of how disturbing he found the abilities of the Insane Dog of the Haruno clan. "Shiho-nii, how can he..?" her question trailed off, but by Shiho-nii's deepening frown, she had no doubt that he understood what she asked.

"I wish I knew, Sakura," he said at last, looking more like a grim deity than she'd ever seen him. "But if you want to avoid killing him, you'll need to keep him tightly leashed."

Sakura nodded, accepting his uncompromising judgment.

Down in the pit, the proctor was shouting for the exam candidates to assemble. Shiho-nii's lingering negativity evaporated and the smile he turned on her was genuine. "I know you'll do well," he reassured her. "Most of your skills are jounin-class."

Sakura frowned, an expression that sat somewhat petulantly on her face. "Most of my skills aren't meant for public display," she grouched.

Shiho-nii chuckled. "At least an awareness of the presence of the crowd ought to keep you from blooming," he offered.

Sakura regarded him without amusement, because while she didn't think Kiba was powerful enough to tip over the edge of the abyss, the later matches awaiting her promised something else entirely.

But she leaped down regardless, the soft ground absorbing the impact of her landing. Sakura landed in a crouch, using the moment to sift the earth briefly through her fingers, confirming that the dark, fertile soil native to Konohagakure had indeed been replaced by a gritty, sandy mixture. _This will give a significant advantage to the Suna ninja, _she thought as she stood, _especially to Gaara. From what was observable in the elimination rounds, he seems to be able to control massive quantities of sand-with so much to wield as a weapon, he could forgo subtlety and crush this entire stadium. _

It was with that cheerless thought firmly in mind that she tonelessly returned the cheerful greeting of her blond-teammate, who seemed to have grown more affectionate when she wasn't looking, slinging his arm familiarly around her shoulders. Eyeing the appendage that was intruding on her person, she ignored his yelp of pain as she pinched the skin on the back of his hand.

"Sakura-chan!" he protested.

"Professionalism," she reminded him briskly.

Naruto looked briefly disappointed, but then he grinned. "S'okay, Sakura-chan," he said enthusiastically. "I know you comment because you care." And, wiping his unbridled happiness off his face, only to replace it with comic solemnity, he assumed the position of parade rest and stared fiercely ahead.

He maintained it only for a moment, because even though the proctor was going over the rules they had agreed to abide by, he apparently couldn't resist asking his next question. "Do ya think Kakashi-sensei forgot when he was supposed to bring Sasuke back?" he asked in a carrying whisper.

"No, Naruto-san," she replied, in what she hoped was a stifling voice.

It failed, for Naruto snorted. "Can you imagine the look on Sasuke-teme's face if he's disqualified for being late?"

She doubted Kakashi-sensei would _actually _allow Sasuke-san to be disqualified. This ceremony was traditional, meant to recognize the achievements of the distinguished genin who had advanced this far as well as to reinforce for them that the only real glory here was reserved for the victors. The presence of exam candidates was preferred but not required. Perhaps Kakashi-sensei had some reason he wanted to avoid exposing Sasuke-san to public scrutiny?

That was very probable, she decided a moment later. The restless crowd had already noticed his absence, being vocal enough in their discontent that thought the structure of the stadium wasn't very conductive to hearing their exact words, she could make out the occasional distinctive shout of 'Uchiha.' The attention being paid to him would have doubtless increased the latent enmity between he and the other clan children, who though they respected his loss, upon occasion displayed impatience with the special dispensations that continued to be granted to the 'Last Uchiha.' And given Sasuke's general off-putting attitude, the last thing he needed was to accrue more ill-will from people who might one day be responsible for stopping an enemy-nin from slipping a kunai in his back.

There was the additional factor of increasing his already ridiculous sense of self-importance. Sakura realized that she was self-involved to the point of being unintentionally alienating, but Sasuke-san had his moments when he was frankly obnoxious and seemed to believe that he was entitled to them.

But then the proctor was calling her match, which was first on the roster and she found herself facing the Inuzuka.

Losing this match wouldn't be his fault-the Inuzuka clan's jutsu was so invested in their canine partners that it was impossible for them to realize their potential until their partners reached physical maturity. It was a bland fact. There were jutsu that they could use to make up for Akamaru's small size, but it was immensely chakra-consuming. In two years or so, when he was no longer a puppy, the pair of them might be a challenge in open combat, but as it was, they would have been better served using their enhanced senses to establish an impressive mission record.

Ignoring his taunt-it involved her hair and her forehead-she darted forward, digging one of her feet into the loose sand, sending a wave of it toward the pair of them, her hand swiftly ghosting into her pouch.

_For an enemy you can't afford to kill, disable. _Ground pepper was a somewhat mundane ingredient to put in a explosive, but Kiba's shriek of pain, swiftly swallowed by cursing, told her that the capsaicin was working as intended. Akamaru whimpered, scrubbing at his nose with his paws, his training not yet embedded enough to prevent the instinctual need to rid himself of a handicap that was the equivalent of blinding a human.

Her sandaled foot met the resistance of his ribs and with a yelp he was flung backwards in the sand. "Hey!" Kiba barked despite his own discomfort. Sakura ignored him. The puppy was the weaker part of the equation and though she was peripherally aware that there was nothing to seal a reputation as a sociopath quite like kicking a puppy, she wasn't about to cede an advantage just because the crowd was less in favor of animal abuse than watching children go at each other with the intent to harm.

She spun out the way of a sloppy attack, clipping him on the back of the head as he stumbled by. A smarter opponent would have waited a few more seconds, as least clearing the sand from his eyes, but his instinct to protect his partner and his temper were going to be his downfall.

Akamaru scrabbled to get up, barely avoiding a punishing blow. Still, though she hadn't connected, she had managed to drive him further from his partner. Proximity wasn't required for their jutsu, but the separation would make it more difficult for them to communicate, as well as exerting physiological pressure on her opponent.

The whistle of kunai allowed her enough time to dodge Kiba's infuriated attack. Sakura kept her mind focused on her primary objective, not even bothering to make a feint with clones to try and distract the other genin.

"Dammit, Sakura!" Kiba bellowed. "Leave Akamaru alone!"

"Make me, Inuzuka-san," she retorted pleasantly. She plucked senbon from her pouch, knowing that the smaller projectiles probably wouldn't do irreparable harm, even though she was less familiar with canine anatomy. And with the windless environment created by the walls, it was a very good environment for use of the light-weight projectiles.

Kiba took her challenge very literally, charging her bodily, but she twisted out of the way again, deliberating staying just out of reach. He was angry enough and quick enough that she wasn't able to hit Akamaru, even though the sandy ground was soon peppered with senbon.

Finally, enraged, he commanded Akamaru to perform their signature attack. The rotation, part of what made it dangerous, whipped the sand into a cloud as Sakura avoided the dangerous but incredibly obvious attack. Sakura took advantage of the moment of recovery and the near-zero visibility to lay out the traps she'd prepared in anticipation of this match.

The ninja wire snares were near invisible in the dusty environment and Sakura knew it was only a matter of time before one of the six feet encountered one of the none-too-harmless loops. Another spray of senbon made Akamaru cockily shuffle to the side, nose finally recovering, but the dog's eyes widened until the whites were visible when she pulled the line taut, swiftly dragging the puppy within reach of her kunai. Half-kneeling on the sand, hand closed around the puppy's muzzle, the other hand pressing a kunai to his furred throat, she asked Kiba the same question that Kakashi had posed to her team all those months ago. "What are you going to do when someone takes your teammate hostage, Inuzuka-san?"

Kiba's snarl told her the answer. With ill grace, he ceded the match.


	15. Down Came God (Part II)

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Fifteen-

Down Came God (Part II)

Naruto was canny like a fox, possessed of almost animal instincts that had guided him mostly unharmed through over a decade of unfriendly villagers. So he was well aware of the apprehension of some of his fellow contestants as they congregated on the contestants level to watch the match between Sakura and Kiba.

Kiba had won against Chouji in the match-ups of the second round, but while the cocky bastard strutted around bragging about his quick victory, Naruto had _heard _Asuma-sensei bribing the exhausted Akamichi to even enter the match at all. So Naruto was less than impressed.

Coupling that with his opponent being Sakura, Naruto was more than a little certain how the match would end. It was the middle he worried about, mostly because while he thought Kiba was irritating, no one deserved to enter a battle with post-Academy Sakura without fair warning. Like, maybe a separate liability contract.

_Yep. Right again_, he thought with resignation as he watched Temari's smothered flinch. The hard-as-nails kunoichi from the desert seemed to have an unexpected soft spot for the small and furry, which Sakura didn't share. At all. Of course, if Sakura _had _soft spots, Naruto was unaware of them. Months of being a team had led him to the conclusion that she was like a jewel, which was a comparison he'd never understood to be flattering when applied to girls. Because he took it to mean she was hard and shiny with sharp edges, though she put effort into being a good teammate. And even if her definition of that seemed a bit skewed and she seemed to have to put a unnerving lot of effort into doing things that seemed painfully obvious to him-like being a decent human being-he still liked her better than the dark-haired bastard without a sense of humor.

Sakura's match was over quickly and while he was certain he looked like an idiot, he couldn't help but grin at the stunt she'd obviously stolen from Kakashi-sensei. Who still hadn't showed up. He hadn't had time to ask Sakura-chan if she'd heard at all from Kakashi-sensei during their training period, but he certainly hadn't.

The teacher that Kakashi-sensei had "acquired" for him-Naruto was betting on some form of blackmail being involved, given his response to a test run of a variation of the Sexy no Jutsu-had been an odd duck and his lessons pretty boring, but when he'd remembered the ease with which both his teammates could perform the basic exercises that had almost not seen him graduate, he'd gritted his teeth and stuck it out.

If he had left lasting psychological scars on Ebisu-sensei, well, the ninja should just own up to being a pervert and embrace it. Naruto snickered as he recalled the really excellent expression that the thin, self-important shinobi had made the first time he'd asked him to display his best jutsu.

If Neji had been less of an asshole to Hinata, he might have considered using the Sexy no Jutsu, but pranks lost their shock value when they were repeated too often. And while the Hyuuga _looked _straight-laced, he could see people's _internal organs. _A woman's naughty bits probably wouldn't even make him blink.

So he, unlike Sakura-chan, was going into his match without any predetermined plan, but he was quick on his metaphoric feet. As Sakura-chan passed beneath them through the door, he cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, "Good job, Sakura-chan!"

His pink-haired teammate, whose hair seemed to have darkened a shade in their month apart, stepped backward and said politely, "Thank you, Naruto-san. Good luck with your match."

"Gotcha!" Naruto said, flashing her a thumbs up before bounding over the railing and to the stadium floor. "And hey," he said, drawing her attention, "apologize to Kiba and Akamaru."

Sakura frowned, her brows drawing together. "Why?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to one side in inquiry, her braid sliding over her shoulder. "I didn't violate any rules."

"Trust me on this one," he told her cheerfully.

She nodded slowly, then disappeared up the stairs, taking with her his buoyant mood. Sakura had been right, at least partially, about the Neji and Hinata fiasco. He _had _felt guilty that Hinata had gotten hurt. And no matter how timid Hinata's personality was, she hadn't even really tried to protest that the other Hyuuga was wrong. And while most people believed she was only a shrinking violet, if you overlooked her stuttering while she was doing it, she wasn't one to overlook things that were flat-out _wrong_.

He sensed clan nastiness was afoot, though of what kind, he had no idea. Still, whatever the _clan _had done to inspire the wrath of Hyuuga Neji, he was fairly certain _Hinata_ had not personally done him any wrong, but it had been Hinata vomiting blood onto the floor of that concrete battleground.

So, therefore, Neji deserved some comeuppance. And Naruto was perfectly willing to give it to him. He'd even do it without pranking-some people learned from them, others, like Sasuke, just got sulky and pissy. And, well, he'd admit the Hyuuga eyes were a total killjoy from that angle as well.

Naruto scowled at his opponent as Neji looked snottily disaffected from the match. There was absolutely no recognition of him as an equal combatant in those eerie off-white eyes. Just like in Sasuke's eyes, Naruto could see no reflection of his own worth, of his place as a shinobi. He only caught glimpses of it in Kakashi-sensei's eyes, but that felt less personal. He suspected Kakashi-sensei, for all his cool jutsu and lightning-quick battle reflexes, didn't actually _see _his team that often. 'Cept for Sasuke. But for all the attention he paid to the other young ninja, Naruto wasn't always a hundred percent certain that what Kakashi-sensei thought he saw there was good.

He knew that better than anyone-people paid attention to things they liked _and _things they were uncomfortable around.

Like Sakura-chan. That made his lips quirk upward into a grin. "If you win this match, you have to fight Sakura-chan next, dontcha?"

Dark brows disappeared beneath his forehead protector. "Planning to lose already?" he asked snidely. "At least the outcome of this match won't be a surprise."

Naruto scoffed. "I should _let _you win. Sakura would hand your ass to you in a gift-wrapped basket."

"Charming."

"I know," Naruto responded, his grin widening. "I'm awesome. That's why I'll give you a choice. You wanna tell me why you felt like you had to beat Hinata-chan almost to death before I pummel you into the ground or after?"

Neji sneered at that proclamation, but Naruto hadn't expected him to take him up on the offer. "You think you'll even be able to touch me?" Neji taunted.

Naruto very vividly remembered Sakura-chan's nasty habit of countering Sasuke's jutsu with paper bombs, of which he had quite a few tucked in his pouch. That was a no touching required option, but somehow less attractive than the thought of his fists crushing that smug confidence. A small, nagging voice in his brain reminded him that Neji's specialty was taijutsu, but in his mind the focus had shifted from winning the match to proving a point.

He could retake this exam in six months. Hinata could have permanent damage to her heart.

Naruto had paid attention to the lay of the battlefield, but in a straight-up match like this, with only one tree for cover, stealth was pretty hard to come by.

But not impossible. Slight of hand was fundamental to pranking and escaping the consequences of those pranks. The key was that people generally saw what they _wanted _to see.

With that thought in mind, Naruto formed the handseal for his signature jutsu, littering the ground of the stadium with ten identical copies of himself, all of whom gleefully undertook heckling the Hyuuga, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the fight.

But, just as he'd implied, none of them were able to touch Neji, not even when a triangular formation of Narutoids almost emptied his kunai point attempting to turn the other shinobi into a pincushion. Even as his enveloped the nearest clones and turned them into so much smoke and noise, Naruto sent another wave and then another, keeping up the pretense of mindless attack as he slunk up the trunk of the single tree, very carefully recalling his lessons with Ebisu-sensei.

Scale made things easier for him, he'd learned, like a child first learning to scribble with an oversized pencil. Most shinobi children learned from the opposite end of the spectrum, manipulating what little of their developing chakra was available to them in detailed ways. Since that was how the majority learned, that was how lessons in the Academy were taught. It just didn't work so well for him. He needed broad strokes, the big picture.

If it could be broken down into simple steps, so much the better. If he trained himself to learn the steps, he could link them together so quickly it was almost the same as being able to do a more complex jutsu. For example, he could create clones almost without thought and he'd finally mastered a more basic form of _henge _under Ebisu-sensei's instruction. So, if he created clones so weak as to be almost negligible and in the instant after had them disguise themselves as leaves in the tree, what did he have?

A very clever trap, waiting to be sprung.

But first, bait. The one issue with replicating himself was that there was no way to communicate with his autonomous copies except through pretty mundane means-he signaled to a clone posted closer to the ground, who whistled shrilly, causing the Narutoids to change their strategy.

Namely, making use of those paper bombs.

Not that he thought any would get through, but Neji could keep up this stalemate until his frustration would overwhelm his planning ability. Naruto needed Neji to close in for the kill to make his move.

He could already tell that Neji wasn't really pleased with how the battle had proceeded so far, some of his long hair coming loose from its bindings and sticking to his cheeks.

One of the Narutoids took the initiative, wrapping its paper bomb around the handle of a discarded kunai, tossing it casually toward the long-haired nin. Even as he began his rotation, the others joined in, attacking from different angles and at different speeds, until Naruto heard an almost literal _snap _of his patience reaching its end.

Faster than Naruto's eyes could track, the Narutoids were being dispersed, the feedback from so many deaths a little dizzying. But very soon, Neji was glaring at him from below as he sat comforting in the Y of a tree branch.

Naruto grinned. "What makes you think you can touch me?" he mocked.

In a fit of temper, Neji's palm smashed into the trunk of the tree, sending shudders of chakra racing up through it. Several "leaves" drifted to the ground.

"Stop playing games," Neji said coldly.

"Games?" Naruto asked, allowing a little of his own seriousness to peek through. "Was it a game, what you did to Hinata? You'd already _won_, asshole."

"It's none of your business," Neji said. "And it has nothing to do with this match."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not going to get serious until you tell me what your problem is," Naruto said. "Bet I have more chakra than you do. You're gonna get dizzy before I run out of clones."

Neji frowned. "Your chakra is meaningless if I close off your chakra points."

Naruto shrugged. "I'm up here. You're down there."

"You're going to dodge kunai from up on your bird-perch?"

"You gonna throw kunai? Because so far, you've just shown off your fancy taijutsu. Finger-poke of death," Naruto stabbed the air with his own fingers as he spoke.

Neji frowned deeply at him, but then the edges of his lips quirked upwards rather unnervingly. "I hate to ruin your plan," he said, "but I can see chakra-and you're within the range of my divination."

Naruto would later judge the fight to be about a forty percent success-most of the success point were lost because he hadn't counted on just _how _fast Hyuuga Neji could move. But a few of his _henge_-d Narutoids did manage to break through the pattern, only to burst on contact with the Hyuuga's skin.

"You kekkai genkei users are so irritating!" Naruto growled, abandoning his perch and his plan when it became obvious that it wasn't viable. If good planning and clever tricks wouldn't get him through, then he would rely on something had _never _failed him-his stubbornness.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sakura was uncertain whether the confession Naruto-san had managed to exact from Hyuuga Neji was what he'd wanted from the match that had ended in the collapse of both parties, but it had given her fodder to ruminate over during the course of the next two matches, which, insultingly enough to the shinobi involved, were being viewed as interlude matches by the spectators.

Especially when the puppeteer conceded the match against Aburame-san. Sakura's eyes narrowed at that action, which was wise but at odds with the hot-tempered shinobi who'd bullied an unknown child and who'd taken such prideful glee in his abilities during the elimination round.

Shiho-nii concurred, standing in midair next to the balcony-it had been he who had relayed the conversation between the prideful branch clan member and Naruto-san.

She knew it was neither the time nor place, but Sakura wanted to speak to Shiho-nii about Hyuuga-san's situation. It was not a terribly close parallel, as the Haruno's branch clan's ability could not be stolen-and the thought of someone _wanting _to acquire it was a little odd-and their manifestations of the kekkei genkai were radically different, rather than this odd sort of knowledge control that was the only thing separating branch from main. But, still, there was a faint sense of entrapment that shrouded all of it; if she could not be sensitive to outsiders, she could at least make certain of Shiho-nii's feelings, even if she could not change their circumstances.

Still, from Sakura's perspective, while she doubted they would promote Hyuuga-san after he'd become so emotionally-driven and lost control of the fight's momentum , it worked to her favor. She had no ready plan to counter his defense and she wasn't prepared to show techniques advanced enough to win her a promotion despite a loss with this crowd looking on. Her next opponent would be the Aburame, who caught her glance and shrugged faintly, perhaps interpreting the gesture as a question on his opinion of the Suna-nin's too-easy surrender.

"Sakura-" Shiho-nii began, but he was interrupted by the manifestation of Kagami-sama.

"You'll want to tap that when you're old enough," she suggested with no softening lead-in at all, leaning forward toward Sakura in such a way that her modified kimono gave a very suggestive view of her assets. "Get him to show you what other wicked things he can do with tenketsu. That he's pretty much genetically assured to be attractive is just a bonus. Every woman should sleep with a Hyuuga man at least once-it'll give you a standard by which to perceive the failings of other men."

There were times when Sakura was half-certain that the natural emotional detachment of the main house was a coping mechanism designed to make them look less like they were schizophrenics, reacting to stimuli no one else could see or hear. Sakura was drawing on all this and every minute of her shinobi training in order to keep her blush contained to the tips of her ears. She didn't even want to contemplate how or why Kagami-sama had developed that theory, having belonged to Kumogakure when alive.

Shiho-nii sighed and pinched the bridge of his noise. "With respect, Kagami-sama-."

A throaty chuckle interrupted his scolding. "I know. Keep Sakura-chan pure as driven snow for as long as possible. I'm not here just to tease; Shiki wanted to impart a little life lesson in case you ever find yourself facing a Hyuuga on the battlefield. Normally, outsiders can't see us and if a Hyuuga were to look at our weapon body with their kekkei genkai activated, they wouldn't be able to perceive anything odd about it. _But_, if you're channeling chakra _through _Shiho-I don't think your training has gone this far yet-it'll awaken his residual chakra. A Hyuuga still wouldn't be able to see his spirit form, but they would notice that your weapon has human chakra residing in it."

"She'll be careful," Shiho-nii promised on her behalf, since her own responses were limited. "And Sakura is _discreet._"

"Unlike me?" Kagami-sama sulked, but she couldn't completely erase her mirth. "Ah, to be partnered with someone who knows _how _to blush-Shiki's so _stifling._" Kagami-sama flicked her hair back over her shoulders. "Anyhow, hint: this Suna team? They're siblings. And their father is sitting right next to the Hokage, wearing the same outfit in blue. And Shiki? He's been _smiling _since puppet boy gave up. So watch yourselves. Shiki won't do a thing to help if something does happen."

That was like saying the sky was blue. Shiki-dono wouldn't interfere if it wasn't in his interests, in the Haruno clan's interests, to do so. Still, the information she'd provided was troubling and Sakura, eager for a more private setting to consult with Shiho-nii, used the excuse of checking on Naruto-san to retreat to an alcove that was secluded enough that she could whisper without fear of being overheard, but explainable should someone catch sight of her. She had little idea how long the match between Nara-san and the Suna kunoichi would go on for, but the announcement for the match's victor should be audible from her position.

Shiho-nii materialized into being at her side moments after she settled on the floor, knees partway drawn up, hands steepled. It was the position of a shinobi at contemplation, a little clanless genin worrying over a proper strategy to defeat an opponent who had the advantage of range and jutsu. It was a valid concern, for Aburame-san would be almost as difficult to fight as Hyuuga-san, but for now it was not the primary one.

His sleeves billowed as he knelt down next to her, crossing his arms across his knees. It was an achingly familiar posture-Shiho-nii had never been hesitant to bring himself level with her to speak when she was a child. It almost made him look normal, human, except for his extraordinary clothing and ice-white hair, which lent him an air of some extraordinary, as if he ought to be a subject of religious art rather than part of her mundane world.

"Don't make too much out of what Kagami-sama said," he cautioned her before she could begin to speak. "Kagami-sama has-well, there were two standards she measured her life by while she was alive and one hasn't changed after her death. She adores shock value for itself, so she might simply be trying to unnerve you."

Sakura stared at Shiho-nii, rather unconvinced by his ploy, but too polite to point out that if he felt the need to explain the character of a woman who had habitually embarrassed her since she was old enough to understand what sexual innuendo meant, then he was obviously shaken by what she had disclosed.

"The Kazekage shouldn't be here, should he?" she asked after a careful consideration of the facts available to her. "The chunnin exams are hosted in rotation by each of the major villages and as gesture of goodwill and trust, oversight by foreign villages is minimal. The presence of a foreign Kage could even be interpreted as an insult, as well as a major security hazard. Both because a Kage-level shinobi would be capable of immense destruction if that was his intent and because if he were to have an unfortunate _accident _while within the walls, we'd be held accountable. Suna could use his death as a reason to declare war. Even if those children are his, if he wanted to watch them take the exams, he should have done so in Suna. And _why _would three siblings be in the same team? The kunoichi is old enough-and talented enough-that she should already hold chunin rank. Something...isn't right," Sakura murmured.

A/N: Wow. I'd forgotten how much trouble I have writing in Naruto's voice until this section came up-very much a switch from the calculating voice of Sakura, who, if this was written in Japanese, would use very polite, formal language, while Naruto would definitely use slang and familiar terms. Sometimes I feel this Naruto is almost as far from his canon self as Sakura is. But I can write clever prankster better than idiot-savant shounen hero. And, yes, for plot points that play out almost exactly the same as in canon, expect me to summarize. I've read the manga, rewritten it once in FKftD, and don't feel the need to rehash it again here. You know whose match is coming next.


	16. Down Came God (Part III)

A/N: What made them think Chidori was a good tactic against Gaara in the first place? Yes, it's capable of breaching his defense, but if you don't kill him at first contact, all you've managed is to put your arm _inside his weapon. _I mention this only because the Team Seven of First Flower is elementally balanced. Naruto is wind, Sasuke is fire, and Sakura is metal. What do you get when you combine these three? The necessary elements to forge a weapon. (I'm obviously not operating according to the canon elements-before I read the manga I'd never heard of an elemental breakdown that included lightning as the fifth element. Spirit, yes, metal, yes, but never lightning.)

First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Fifteen-

Down Came God (Part III)

"Jou-chan," a familiar voice called out teasingly, then Jun himself appeared before her. He sank down on his heels in a leonine movement, his braid pooling on the floor. He leaned forward slightly, invasively. "Jou-chan, it's dull out there," he said coaxingly. "It's no fun if no one _bleeds_. And Nara clan is dull through bone and branch. His lady friend, on the other hand-well, she's from a village that drinks the blood of their beasts when the water's short. But they're playing, not fighting." His hand traced the edge of her cheek and flicked at her bangs. "You know that, jou-chan."

His restless eyes flicked toward Shiho-nii and he smiled sharply. "Don't let it whisper to you of moderation. Once you amass so much horror at your deeds, they can no longer condemn you for it-then you're a _demon_, which is only a god too strange for humans to understand_. _ And they say that killing is the best broom for troubles, sweeping them straight out the door. And, jou-chan?" he leaned forward, his shadow enveloping her until she sat in darkness, the scent of his body like blood and dried grass in her nostrils, his eyes so close to hers that that jade and black melded into a similar darkness. "There's going to be a lot of blood," he whispered to her with all the solemnity of one making prophecy.

There was nowhere to retreat to, her back already pressed against the wall, so she kept still as those words burrowed deep in her heart.

"How can you know?" she asked quietly.

"Ai knows to make herself useful-she's not needed at my side, so I've had her watching our snake from the forest. And today it slithered in to the village. Do you wait to see if a snake is poisonous before you cut its head off?" he murmured.

In practice, yes, providing it was identifiable. Snakes were useful as vermin control on farms and played an important role in a balanced ecosystem. But that wasn't Jun's question. And so that was not her answer. "You don't," she said softly.

She could almost feel his smile. "Would you like to see what happens when you set a dog to drive a snake from a corpse? Especially when the face it wears is one that is called 'Kage'?"

Startled, she shoved Jun away, he collapsing obligingly backward, his hands coming to rest on either side of his body, legs extending so that she sat between them. "You think-," she hesitated, choosing her words with care, "that Orochimaru has somehow supplanted the Kazekage? Kagami-sama said those were his children in the arena. Wouldn't they notice that their father-?" Another fact supplanted the question in urgency and she paused as she considered the ramifications of it. "Ai wasn't needed at your side? What did you do to her? Branch clan members are bound to their weapons. You didn't-you didn't purposely abandon her, did you?"

She sensed the way Shiho stiffened, but her focus was on Jun and his answer. It wasn't supposed to be possible, especially with how often Jun drank of the well of cold madness that was their kekkei genkai. He chuckled. "There is no slight of hand I am capable of that would have allowed me to slip such a distinctive senbon into Orochimaru's weapons pouch, though that is a trick Ai is well-trained for. No, I've simply loosened her shackle a little to let her drift and make herself useful. And isn't that what every human being wants, to be _useful_?"

"I thought it was to be loved," Sakura answered softly.

"What do you think love is but being useful?" Jun asked, eyes steady as he gazed upon her, jade filled with challenge. "All people are always and only motivated by self-interest. We love others because it pleases us. We help others because it makes us feel like necessary components of society and because it makes us feel as if we are 'good,' which all children are socialized to experience as a pleasant thing, associating it subconsciously with parental praise and approval. No one would be good if we weren't rewarded for it. Take it from a dog, jou-chan."

"That's not true," Sakura protested automatically, but it didn't escape her the way her eyes automatically sought out Shiho for reinforcement. Was she 'good' for the sake of it, or was she good, reacting and behaving according to rules she didn't quite understand and didn't feel intrinsically, because it pleased Shiho?

After a moment of anxious thought, Sakura decided firmly that the motive didn't matter. People couldn't actually read each others' hearts, after all. Whatever thought process resulted in behavior that maintained social order, Sakura desired most of all to please Shiho, all other people being relatively irrelevant. She felt obliged to Ran-oba-san, respected Kakashi-sensei, felt some measure of affection for her teammates, had the same kind of awed fearful love toward Shiki-dono one might feel towards Susasnoo, and a sense of responsibility toward Jun that the owner of a dangerous exotic pet might feel. But all of those connections were fragile, tenuous as the silk of a spider web. Strictly speaking, the tensile strength was greater than steel, but to humans it was easily brushed aside with little more than irritation. Her kekkei genkai rid her even of that.

Then Jun chuckled, startling her from her reverie. "Don't worry so, jou-chan. Pet a dog and it will adore you forever. And, well, you'll never lose your chain unless you break it." He tilted his head back to glance at Shiho-nii. "Although, it's funny, jou-chan. He's going to turn you into the very thing he fears."

-\\\-|||-/-

-/-|||-\\\-

Sasuke heard the ambient noise of the crowd, driven to a fever pitch of bloodlust by his near disqualification, chanting his clan name like that hoped to invoke a god, but he'd noticed only briefly the reactions of his two teammates before turning his full attention to his opponent. Naruto had waved cheekily at him from the balcony, but Sakura hadn't even met his eyes, her attention firmly fixed on the red-head across from him. There was something odd there, something he couldn't spare the attention to investigate, but her usual calculating intensity seemed even more distant and fierce than usual.

But with an opponent like this, he couldn't afford overconfidence. Lee had possessed simple confidence and left his battle broken-Sasuke had had it deeply engrained over the course of a month that he shouldn't let arrogance blind him to the very real fact that Gaara had superior battle experience, training, and a habit of beginning a battle using fatal force. And, as Kakashi had pointed out dryly, he had an abnormally developed chakra system, to be able to saturate so much sand with his chakra and manipulate its mass-the weight of it dependent on how densely he was able to compress it into that gourd of his, if he didn't make use of a sealing seal-so adeptly.

Still, no matter how much of a barrier the sand was to victory, utilizing any single technique to the exclusion of all else could make it a weakness no matter how powerful the technique itself was. During his elimination battle, Gaara hadn't even _moved_, shifting his sand rather than his body. Even when Lee had surprised him by breaching the sand, he hadn't even flinched toward his equipment pouch. It was a instinctive reaction, difficult to control, ingrained as it was from their earliest classes. It was one of the first things they were forced to unlearn when they graduated, it being a distinctive tell, like reaching for a much-beloved toy as a child.

With only a single technique to contend with and a month with Hatake Kakashi to develop a counter-strategy that would assure both his survival and his promotion, Sasuke had entered the arena confident that he would at least surprise Gaara.

The key was in the realization that while the jutsu itself might be undefeatable by the usual means, it was reliant on an unusual weapon. Sasuke could remember with unusual clarity the thoughtful line of Kakashi's brow and he rubbed a sample of Gaara's sand between bare fingers.

This close to Gaara, he could make out the broken blood vessels in his eyes and the manic expression on his face, like someone on the verge of death by dehydration catching sight of someone carrying a glass of water. Only it wasn't water he thirsted for, but violence. Almost, Sasuke could look at him and expect him to be unable to speak in words intelligible to a human being. Because, in that moment, Gaara didn't seem particularly human at all.

"So now...at last," the proctor murmured around his senbon, apparently not particularly thrown by Gaara's bloodlust. His tone was almost monotonous as he continued. "The rules are the same as in the preliminaries. The match goes on until one of you dies or admits defeat. When it's determined that there's a winner, the match can be stopped. But that's my decision. Both of you, to the middle."

Gaara sneered as he approached, but Sasuke's naturally impassive face served him well in this instance. Ever since _that night_, when it had felt like a part of himself had been murdered alongside his clan, it had been far easier to keep what he felt inside. Only emotions that spilled over-hatred, rage, irritation-could normally break the mask he wore. Except with his team-it irked him deeply that they saw so much that he didn't want others to see.

"Begin!"

Sand erupted from the gourd on Gaara's back, uncoiling like a snake. Sasuke tensed the muscles in his legs, preparing to dodge as soon as Gaara gave some indication of the direction of his attack-another advantage that controlling the sand solely with his chakra imparted-but then his expression contorted to one of pain and he clutched at his forehead. The sand faltered in its advance and Sasuke took advantage of the opening immediately, a flurry of shuriken burying themselves in a shield of sand curved protectively around the young ninja now ignoring him.

"Please don't get so mad," he cajoled softly, "Mother..."

Sasuke for a moment could only stare and wonder whether the standards for soundness of mind among the Suna shinobi were more lax.

"Earlier," Gaara murmured , just barely audible, "Earlier I fed you something awful. I'm so sorry. But this time, surely..."

Sasuke listened with a growing sense of alarm. Sakura had been wrong, he thought with what was probably undue wonder at that fact, Gaara didn't kill because he liked the color of blood. It was something both more and less alarming than that. Madness was more commonplace than that sort of uncanny existence that lacked so much of what made humans what they were.

Sweat beaded on Gaara's brow, as if this conversation took more effort than the entire battle with Lee.

The pain seemed to intensify, Gaara cradling his head in both arms, making him vulnerable, but Sasuke found himself unable to act on that vulnerability, which seemed far more emotional than physical. But then the sand-shield dissolved into nothing more than piles at Gaara's feet and Gaara steadied, his eyes slightly more cogent as he stared at Sasuke. As if the conversation had never transpired, as if moments before he hadn't been all but trembling, he said in that same dead voice he'd used to address his siblings, "Come on."

His sand rose, swirling around him like it ached to touch him but didn't dare, ready to meet Sasuke's next attack. Sasuke obliged and a brief period of combat ensued in which the sand revealed a heretofore unseen flexibility, forming itself into a clone. Gaara simply stood, arms crossed, as the clone battled briefly with Sasuke, its poor hand-to-hand skills confirming Sasuke's expectation of Gaara's combat skills. It didn't last more than fifteen seconds, even if it did attempt to reform itself about Sasuke's forearm as it gave it a blow that would have collapse a person's throat.

Lee had breached Gaara's defenses with speed and Sasuke aped that, though with far less sheer skill. He didn't allow himself to feel regret for lacking the Sharingan-his technique might not have given him victory over a taijutsu specialist, but he didn't intend to beat Gaara in hand-to-hand. Lee had tried that and failed. No, what he intended was to put Gaara on the defensive and draw out all of his sand from his gourd.

He soon found himself breathing heavily, his speed augmented as it was by the subtle use of chakra, but it was doing as intended. Gaara was used to such raw superiority that any challenge to his sand seemed to throw him off balance. Sasuke paid careful attention to the chakra he expended, knowing that the demands in the latter part of the match would be excessive. Given their lateness to the match, the time between matches would be considerably shortened for him, giving him very little time to recover before he fought again.

But he shoved that aside, for fighting one battle at a time was all he could currently manage.

Gaara finally seemed to master his astonishment, forming his fingers into a handsign. Sasuke leaped backward to give himself more range if it proved to be offensive, but the sand instead began to weave itself into a dense sphere about Gaara's person. Despite himself, the corner of Sasuke's mouth tipped upward.

_Perfect. _Slipping his hand into his pouch, deft fingers found the sealing scroll waiting for him there. Activating it quickly, as it was important to make use of it before his defense finished forming, he dashed forward, flinging the scroll like it was a kunai.

Gaara's eyes widened at the unexpected action, especially when the contents of it were caught up in his sand, white grains swallowed by dun-colored ones. Then his expression was obscured by his impenetrable defense.

But, as anyone who had lived through a siege in a castle might report, impregnable defenses might as easily become an unbreakable cage.

The white substance that he'd donated so generously to Gaara's sphere was sodium carbonate. And, like much sand found in non-tropical areas, Gaara's was composed of degraded quartz crystals. Silica sand.

All he lacked was a source of heat; and that, Sasuke could provide.

Inhaling deeply, Sasuke let the heat build inside him, until the fire he spewed from his mouth was tinged deeply with blue. The fire encountered Gaara's shield with a roar, Sasuke quickly bringing the fire under control. There were those who used fire as a crude weapon, little more effective than a flash-bomb, but the Uchiha clan had made it an art. It wasn't enough to simply be able to use fire-nature jutsu-that would have never won his father's approval. It was that that Sasuke kept in mind as he used every iota of oxygen in his lungs to fuel his flames.

And, lightheaded, smirked faintly as he beheld the glowing glass bauble that had taken shape in front of him. It cooled quickly, revealing Gaara's incredulous expression behind green-tinted glass, warped by the uneven flow of the sand. Another movement produced several fragile orbs containing a powder that dispersed itself liberally over the sphere where they burst on contact with the surface. Basic knock-out stuff, effective either when inhaled, which was likely if he broke the glass and disturbed it, or after a longer duration if absorbed through the vulnerable tissue inside the nose.

He turned his head expectantly toward the proctor, looking to see if he would call the match in his favor.

But then something odd drew his attention back to Gaara. Though Sasuke had effectively nullified all the sand from his gourd, a spike of sand drawn from the arena itself pierced Gaara's glass tomb. Sand began to fill the globe like an hourglass in reverse, Gaara's eyes slipping slowly closed. Sand obscured his form, but the color and texture of it changed, blue veins streaking through it.

An awful sense of foreboding stole over Sasuke, though he couldn't have explained what exactly about this newest development would cause such alarm. But, for a moment, he could only entertain the feeling that the thin shell of glass was the shell of an egg, from which something terrible was about to be born.

Inhaling deeply again, he resolved to see if he couldn't cook the embryo within before whatever it was within could draw breath.

He never had the opportunity to discover what it was, nor if his fire burned hot enough to kill Gaara outright, though the sand-shield that coated his skin had apparently dispersed the heat of his first attack-a loud explosion on the balcony where the Kage sat drew his attention. And then the world dissolved into chaos.

-\\\-|||-/-

-/-|||-\\\-

"You can't sleep now, jou-chan," Jun murmured in her ear as the first drowsiness of a genjutsu settled over her, "this is when the fun begins." He bit down, hard enough to draw blood, on that same ear, returning her to a full awareness of the dawning crisis.

It had been unnecessary, Sakura fully intending to feign being effected while more quietly releasing herself from the genjutsu, but Jun would allow her no such pretense. So Sakura watched, taking in the assault on the village Shiho-nii loved, Jun's prophecy coming to bloody fruition.

She recognized the symbol on the headbands of the invading ninja and while her mind contemplated how such a large force had penetrated their border security, her mouth was already forming the order her dog waited so eagerly for. "If they're bold enough to launch an attack like this, there will be further reinforcements outside the village."

"And?" Jun asked her, his hands already donning the soulless clawed gauntlets that were all that remained of his first partner.

"Send them on to meet Enma-ou." Jun grinned fiercely, petals spreading in his eyes, his kekkei genkai spreading poisonous roots in his mind. A flower of perfect madness, the scarred tree on his back as foreboding as ever and the long braid of his hair trailing him like a pennant, Jun delighted in the coming carnage and departed before any more words could be offered.

Sakura glanced over at Shiho-nii, to gauge his reaction to her response, but Shiho-nii had no attention to spare. His eyes were caught on the cloud that obscured where the Hokage had been, his expression stricken. _Orochimaru...!_

Inside her heart, Sakura bloomed.

A/N: Sodium carbonate is used to lower the melting point of silica sand-if you can breathe fire, why not fire hot enough to melt sand? Without using sodium carbonate, the melting point is 4,172 degrees F, but with its a mere 2,732 degrees F.


	17. A More Perfect Madness (Part I)

A/N: If you are glad to see this chapter, feel gratitude towards Leaf Babe, who used the tried and true method of fanart to guilt me into returning to this fandom after spending so long on TRuS. If you happen to notice antiquated diction, please excuse it by way of my long sojourn. And then, who should come along but UzzleCue? Check out the links on my profile. I promise that they're absolutely worth your time.

First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Sixteen-

A More Perfect Madness (Part I)

Some might argue that the katana was the most perfect weapon ever designed by the human mind, but fear was a weapon devised by the gods.

Sakura admired its artistry as she stood apart from its touch, distant and immovable behind the petals that bloomed in her heart. It would have been far more clever in this case to had done away with the genjutsu, which hadn't a hope from the beginning of trapping the most dangerous jounin, allowing the civilians in the stands to do the work on behalf of the enemy shinobi.

If it was her invasion, that was what she would have done, forcing the defending shinobi to not only defeat her smaller force, but contend with the panicked masses without injuring the noncombatants who were under their protection. She could almost picture it, the way the glutted stadium would become a seething charnel house of chaos and fear, all shinobi becoming enemies in the dull cow-eyes of the people who'd come to see blood sport without any appreciation of the irony that they were about to become intimately acquainted with it.

"Sakura," Shiho-nii said urgently.

Sakura blinked, tearing her attention from the scene below and dutifully turning it to Shiho-nii.

"Sakura, you're blooming." Only the distress clearly written on his face reminded her that this was something bad, because she no longer feared her bloodright.

Instead it seemed as if a hazy layer had been peeled from the world, all the colors writ more vividly, all the people in it edged more sharply. She hadn't been allowed to do this since she'd become heir proper, so she'd tucked away the memory of how immensely wonderful the sensation was. When her kekkei genkai was sealed away, all she could remember of it was darkness and horror, but now she could recall the way her heart had beat against her chest like it would escape, the adrenaline and dopamine flooding her system as she was pressed to the very edge of her capabilities and beyond. The incredible focus she'd been able to bring to bear, unhampered by emotional ties.

But she was not yet in the First Flower and, regardless, she had memorized Shiho-nii's expressions to use as a guide when her own morals evaporated. That might not matter to her if the petals had unfolded more fully, but for now it was enough. So Sakura took control of that odd pocket of chakra that sheltered beneath the interior curve of her skull and halted its spread before it could manifest in her eyes.

Despite Shiho-nii's disapproval, she didn't force the petals to shrivel completely. This was an advantage she couldn't cede at the moment. Or, perhaps, wouldn't. Until the Thousand Generation Flower bloomed, fear was a heady song of joy.

-\\-\\-/-/-

Shiho's physical body hardly felt warmth or chill, but he shuddered as his link with Sakura was saturated in her chakra. It eddied around him like the ocean testing the solid weight of an anchor, but he held firm against it. Jun had shaken him, shaken him badly, because the last thing he wanted Sakura to do was to think of him as nothing more than a chain. But he wanted to think-no, he _knew_, that the Sakura of the present still had enough humanity that she would regret giving over to Jun's gleeful monstrosity or Shiki-dono's placid amorality.

He knew that she would not remain a child forever and that, regardless of Haruno heritage, age and her lifestyle would erase the vestiges of the girl with candy-floss hair who'd clung to his knee and told him that she was frightened of her cousin. But Shiho had treasured that Sakura. He would never leave her, no matter what she would become in the future, but he wanted to be able to reconcile that child with the adult she would become.

But, as he looked out over the chaotic battlefield that the arena had become, he thought privately to himself that while he didn't want her to become a monster, he would do everything in his power to hone Sakura into something untouchable. Even if the cost...no, he wouldn't think of that.

He'd seen Shiki-dono fade like mist into the crowd, that blandly pleased smile crossing his face while his gaze was fixed on the balcony where the Kage had been seated. Shiki-dono cared only for the clan. Everything else in existence in the world was a source amusement or annoyance. If Orochimaru managed to slaughter every man, woman, and child in this village, Shiki-dono's likeliest response would be to applaud politely.

"Sakura," he said urgently, "you need to get Gaara out of the stadium." The jounin were occupied with the active threats, no matter how sinister the building power in the sand-egg was.

Sakura nodded calmly, her jade gaze cool and assessing. All it was was a problem of power and logistics. No fear made it urgent, no hesitance at the sheer rage and hate emanating from the young Suna shinobi would lose her the battle. He suppressed his instinctive shudder. Fear, rage, hate-all of them were the symptoms of being human. Without them...

Without them, one was really just a weapon capable of taking human shape. And that was what brought the clan full circle.

In an agile twist of her body, Sakura was perched on the railing for only moments before she leaned forward, almost falling but for the firm grip of her hands. She walked her feet back up the wall, adjusting the angle of her body. And then she sprang, summoning his body as she did so, stretching out and tucking it into her side until guan dao and girl were a single arrow shot straight into the sphere below.

Sleeves billowing behind him, Shiho followed her flight. The blade of a clansmen never dulled, but there was something more he could do for her that mere steel, no matter how well tempered, could not. Not unless it too possessed a soul. But Sakura was too young yet, her own chakra systems too vulnerable to bear it. For now he was helpless to do aught but guide, his chakra trapped in the _between _place where it slept, not fully in the weapon his body had become and not quite residing in Sakura's coils. Once, when he'd been newly dead, the chakra had fully resided in his bones, but as the bond between weapon and wielder had grown, there'd been a long, subtle shift toward Sakura. One day it would be complete and his water-dominant chakra could aid her, but now...

Now he could only watch her charge into battle, her candy-floss braid whipping in the wind like a pennant, her mouth a firm slash of determination.

Just before she reached the effective range of the poison that the Uchiha boy had used, she hurled several kunai with all her not inconsiderable might. The glass shattered easily, spilling a cloud of powder into the air and dusting the blue-veined sphere like a daifuku with a particularly unappetizing center. The Uchiha's dark eyes trained on her sharply. "We need to move him," Sakura said, but a natural arrogance imbedded in the tone made it a command.

The boy's eyes narrowed sharply, but it was a brief gesture, lost in the next moment when he nodded. "How?"

It was a very good question, for neither of their skillsets were particularly suited to the task of moving Gaara as he was. There was only one good solution. "We have to shatter his sand shield," Sakura said, voicing his thought.

Irritation flashed briefly across Sasuke's face. "How?" he repeated, more demandingly this time.

The corners of Sakura's mouth tilted upwards in a grin. "I hadn't thought you'd forgotten my favorite tactic already."

Sasuke's brows rose. "Explosives? But you only use paper explosives. There's nowhere near enough powder to create the kind of force you'd need."

The grin on Sakura's face approached feral, jade eyes gleaming. "Not normally, no. But set in the proper amplification seal..."

An answering smirk broke on the features of her teammate. Sealing jutsu and the relating sub-section of amplification seals weren't normally considered combat arts, given that they took time and preparation without the guarantee of being useful in any given battle. Most shinobi never bothered to learn more than the basic seals used for convenience, such as the ubiquitous scroll storage seal. Creating a seal in the heat of battle was possible, of course, but only a fuinjutsu master could do one of any complexity.

Neither Sakura nor Sakura were that talented, but they had one clear advantage-for the moment, their target was completely stationary. Though for how much longer remained to be seen.

-\\-\\-/-/-

Not all the trembling in Sasuke's limbs was due to adrenalin and excitement, but he'd rather bite through his own tongue than admit it. As he raced to trace the correct pattern in the sandy floor of the arena, using all his hard-won speed, he was very quietly glad for Sakura's composure, because his pride wouldn't allow him to be anything less than the equal of his teammate.

Their seal would be compromised by not being written out properly in chakra-infused ink, but he could only hope it would be enough. They had to be careful not to sweep the poison he'd meant to trap Gaara with into the air with the speed of their movements, but they were both taking care. He liked that about working with Sakura-he never felt the need to supervise her work.

Within seconds, they had the seal in place and the entirety of their combined stores of paper explosives set on the appropriate intervals. Sakura's share had earned her a disbelieving glance, but it was, as she'd said, one of her favorite gambits.

The shield had lost its perfect spherical shape by the time they'd finished, lumps beginning to protrude from the surface, and Sakura barely let them gain a safe distance before she activated the first tag.

He happened by chance to glance over at his teammate as the linked explosions fed each other in a swelling roar. The transformation from her usual somber, serious self was so startling that he had an instant's thought there was another genjutsu at work. Her eyes shimmered, their jade stark and clear, and she was for once not looking as wholly ferocious as she usually did. That Sakura was serious, dedicated, overly literal-but this Sakura looked capable of laughter, her cheeks lent color by the fight, her whole being imbued with a sense of movement. It was the first time since he'd known her that she actually looked like a child, caught up in some game.

It was unnerving, so he looked away, shielding his eyes as their engineered explosion proved itself wildly successful. Perhaps too successful, he thought with a mental wince as a distracted Konoha shinobi was thrown off balance by the concussion wave and earned himself a long gash across his ribs.

Waiting patiently for the dust to settle was painful, but Gaara was too good an opponent to risk going into battle even the slightest bit impaired.

But he smirked widely when he saw that the awkward growth had stopped, the whole structure riddled with cracks. Even as he watched, Gaara's sand fell away, leaving only a dazed young ninja half-kneeling in the arena. Before a sense of triumph even had time to steal over him, Sakura was darting forward and he found himself following her lead.

Her guan dao came down like lightning, but there was a crash like thunder as the stroke that might have split Gaara's skull open was caught on the broad arm of Temari's fan. The older girl opened her mouth as if to say something, but Sakura's grip on her weapon was already shifting. Temari had to duck low to avoid the path of Sakura's foot, but she managed to unfurl her fan enough to force the smaller girl to retreat.

Sasuke's impression that Temari hadn't been fighting Shikamaru seriously was born out by the knife-edged gust of wind that roared from the spread fan. Even though he'd retreated at the first hint of movement, not bothering to waste his kunai hurling them into a gale-force wind, it tore through the reinforced silk fibers of his shirt and left deep wounds on unprotected skin. They didn't hurt yet-chakra-honed wind was sharper than any steel edge could hope to be-but you could bleed a man to death through a thousand cuts as easily as one.

Sakura's outfit left much less skin exposed and her shirt, if not her wraps or pants, had fared far better against the wind. Given how it hung on her frame, he'd suspected it had once belonged to someone else, but this convinced him. There were better weaves available than the one in his current shirt, but they were very expensive-so much so that he hadn't seen the point in wasting money on them when he would only grow out of the clothes before he'd be highly ranked enough to be sent on the kind of missions that required that kind of armor. The shirt she wore had probably once belonged to a jounin. They were the only kind of shinobi with the need, the currency, and the connections.

But his curiosity about the shirt she'd inherited or bought-that wasn't impossible, many of the jounin who came from civilian families had their things sold after their deaths-was something in the way of a tertiary concern. His primary one was that the painted shinobi with the dumb cat-hood had swooped in and scooped Gaara's limp form up. Tossing him over his shoulder with ease, he made a swift retreat from the stadium.

Sasuke would have leaped forward and followed, but Sakura's hand caught at the high collar of his shirt and stopped his forward momentum in a very undignified way. With hardly a glance at them, Temari followed the other Suna shinobi.

Frowning ferociously and swatting her hand free, he snarled at her, "They're getting away!"

Her tone was cutting. "If you want every civilian in the stadium dead, why don't you just do it yourself?"

He blinked at her, bemused by the accusation.

An impatient breath hissed over her lips. "Gaara's fighting style-you remember his range from the preliminaries, don't you? Lee couldn't avoid it and he's the fastest shinobi not jounin rank. Civilians would be like so many cattle waiting for the slaughter. And that newest form..."

She shook her head. "Gaara wouldn't mind that much carnage, but as Konohagakure shinobi, aside from the fact that it's a tactic that would demoralize our ranks and make the civilians more likely to concede to and cooperate with the demands of the invading force if this battle goes badly for us, it's our primary duty at this moment to minimize civilian casualties. Give them a few moment's lead. We won't be limited by those considerations once they reach the forest."

Even though his past held the horrors it did, he hadn't considered the other people in the stands. Somehow this had seemed entirely a shinobi matter. No Konoha ninja would fight like that. A part of him couldn't even believe that Sakura's response wasn't one of self-righteous anger, but something that was almost approval. He was disgusted, too, at the way she'd prioritized the morale of the shinobi over the lives of all the people in the stadium.

Sasuke might admire Sakura, but there were times, like now, when he wasn't certain he liked her. At all.

But his feelings didn't make her judgment any less valid and he was a good enough ninja to separate the two.

"If we're giving them time to retreat," Sakura said, breaking him from his thoughts, "we might as well take the opportunity to do some recruitment. Gaara might be ranked a gennin, but any idiot can see that not all is well in Suna. Temari-san and Kankuro-san are old enough and skilled enough to be at least chunnin. And the Kazekage's never displayed any reservations at promoting on skill alone. Gaara is a gennin yet for a reason." She frowned, her gaze growing thoughtful. "I wonder..." she shook the thought away.

"Let's leave the situation here in the hands of the jounin-no need to distract them. Who's fresh enough to fight yet?"

"Naruto," Sasuke conceded grudgingly. There was something very _wrong_ about the boy's chakra recovery rate. And his healing, for that matter. "Shino. And the ones who were disqualified during the preliminary."

"None of the ones eliminated during the preliminary. They're a bad match, except for Hyuuga-san. And she likely isn't fully recovered. That's a pity. I'll speak to Aburame-san, while you collect Naruto-kun. He's probably under the genjutsu."

Sasuke scowled but did as she suggested, finding Naruto snoring contentedly on the floor just outside the exit of one of the stairwells. A harder-than-strictly necessary kick to the ribs had him awake and gasping, but he overrode his complaints and explained in no uncertain terms exactly what they were going to do. And, for good measure and because he was irked by this turn of events, he intentionally stepped on the pretending Shikamaru.

Then, before anyone could naysay the plan, they slipped from the arena and fell in with Sakura and Shino. It was clear from the sober looks on all faces save Sakura's that the startling events were sinking in. They'd all been on missions before, but this, this was personal. It was their home that had been attacked. There was no room for fear, even though they'd seen their jounin, who'd been something just short of gods to the young genin, struggle and sometimes fall against the enemy. For all the competitiveness of it, the exam was a game that only had the potential to be deadly.

This was the first act of war.

-\\-\\-/-/-

When they came at last upon Gaara, much recovered and sneering at them with all the haughtiness and strange remove of a lion in his prime, Sakura gripped her weapon so tightly that her knuckles went white. There was a strange fluttering in her chest. She knew no fear, so it could only be anticipation that made her feel that way.

Because, with only Sasuke and Naruto remaining, this was one opponent that she didn't need to hold anything back from. She could bloom in all senses of the word. She hadn't realized until this moment what an everyday burden fear was in her life. Fear of displeasing Ran-oba-san, disappointing Shiho-nii, inadvertently disobeying Shiki-dono, of having made the wrong decision about Jun, and even occasionally the small, nagging fear that none of her teammates liked her.

Now there was none of that weighing on her narrow shoulders. She was, for once, free.

She almost ignored the angry dialogue between her teammates and Gaara, instead watching very closely the other shinobi's body language. Before she'd bloomed, she'd feared his desire for bloodshed because it seemed like a skewed reflection of her own potential. Now she could watch him, _really _watch him. She'd said before that it was undirected, all-consuming, and it was, but she'd thought that was intentional. Now she was beginning to have doubts. There was something manic about him now, like the earlier battles had worn away the veneer of silent control and left him bare to her eyes.

Gaara's hand was twitching ever so faintly and his breathing was irregular. His eyes had been red during their first meeting, but the burst blood vessels were so noticeable now that it almost looked as if his own sand had rubbed them raw.

A thought stole up on her. What if those kohl-encircled eyes weren't a fashion statement? What if they hid a more telling sign of weakness? One that could cause hallucinations, impair reasoning, and cause erratic behavior much like being drunk?

Acute total sleep deprivation? Or chronic sleep deprivation? Whichever it was, whatever its cause, Sakura examined its potential as a weakness and dismissed it. If they could get him to sleep, it would be a deep, heavy sleep, but his sand shield made method of application a daunting question even if they'd had more of the drug Sasuke'd intended to use earlier. Though her conclusion did make the fine hairs on her arm stand on end with apprehension. Sleep deprivation also slowed reflexes. She didn't even want to imagine facing a wholly healthy Gaara.

Knowing that his behavior would be erratic limited her surprise when Gaara broke off in the middle of a sentence to attack, face so twisted in a snarl he looked hardly human.

She exchanged a speaking glance with Shiho-nii, who stared at her for a long, searching moment. "Be careful," he said at last. His lips twitched into a crooked, gently smile. "I won't survive losing you."


	18. A More Perfect Madness (Part II)

A/N: Dedicated to tenterhooks, who deserves all your praise for bribing me with some exceptional fanart. If you want to see it, check out the fresh cover and my profile for the links.

First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Eighteen-

A More Perfect Madness (Part II)

One day, she would be almost as quick as Shiki-dono. Not as quick, because Shiki-dono was primarily wind-natured and it felt almost blasphemous to contemplate one day being his equal, but almost as quick.

But not yet.

If she was, there would be no question of how she would defeat Gaara. As she was, she had only those few explosive tags she'd kept back from their seal earlier and Shiho-nii. In traditional Haruno fashion, she would master herself and her partner before they began on specialized elemental ninjutsu. Doing so generally produced ninja who were competent in more than the element that came most naturally to them, unlike the shinobi of most villages whose shorter life expectancy meant expedience was a crucial element in forming their training plans, but at the moment it meant that she was somewhat limited in her options. Aside from her weapons-based jutsu and her propensity to engage in explosive offenses, she knew exactly one genjutsu.

After tentatively agreeing with her Academy assessment of her being genjutsu dominant, Kakashi-sensei had shown her the illusion he'd intended to use on her during the bell test. Sakura had been severely underwhelmed. He'd reassured her that for normal, non-Haruno shinobi, the Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu could be a traumatizing realization of their worst fears of the moment. Sakura had taken him at his word and dutifully learned to replicate the technique, but she really doubted the showing Gaara his worst fear of the moment-whatever that happened to be-would do anything but push him completely off the edge.

Strategically speaking, Gaara was a poor opponent for her.

Naruto had plunged right into the battle, his shadow clones giving her plenty of opportunity to marvel at the speed and flexibility of Gaara's sand defense. She could sense Naruto himself somewhere in the branches to her right, not yet so caught up in Gaara's taunting that he was risking himself alongside his doppelgangers. It wouldn't be long, though. Judging by his chakra signature, he was all but vibrating with tension.

There was something almost godlike about Gaara's jutsu. Simply moving the sand, the mass of which must have been enormous, would have been enough to make it an A-level jutsu. But the sheer flexibility of it was something else entirely. Most elemental jutsu were designed to produce a simple response. Raise a wall of earth, a clone of mud, a spear of stone. They did not shift shapes as his sand did, did not seem to evolve to meet any new threat. His sand was the most formidable thing about Gaara.

The obvious tactic would be to disarm him, but it wasn't as simple as knocking a kunai from his hand.

When he used it to sheer through trees like they were wet paper, all the cuts were left clean of sand. Not a grain seemed to stray, which eliminated somehow wearing down his weapon. Water might have done it, but none of the three of them could have produced the volume necessary in any case. And there was no guarantee that would have been effective regardless. Oil would have been better. If they could have saturated the sand and set it aflame, she had no doubt that might have done away with the problem of Gaara, but would have introduced a subsequent issue with a massive forest fire in the midst of an invasion.

But as she watched him crush another group of clones, she was beginning to have an idea of the ebb and flow of the technique.

Once you surmounted the scale and horror of it, there was something really peculiar about it. It was almost autonomous, she realized with surprise. Some of Naruto's clone army was obstructing itself by favoring quantity over quality, but it wasn't a _bad_ tactic, per se. Even the most talented ninja would have difficulty in repelling coordinated attacks from all directions. No one's reflexes and peripheral vision were that good, which was why it was the favored tactic of hunter-nin for bringing in highly dangerous missing-nin. But Gaara didn't even seem to be trying to track all the attacks, instead focusing on eliminating the largest clusters of clones. The sand itself seemed to do the rest.

Sakura's eyes narrowed. Sand manipulation had been made famous by the Third Kazekage, whose techniques, like those of all Kage-level ninja-most of whom earned the ranking in wars and therefore had occasion to display said techniques before witnesses that survived the encounter-had been subjected to intense scrutiny by outside countries. But while his Satetsu would logically seem to be the superior destructive technique, none of the records had ever mentioned this ability. And it was highly improbably to think that trained jounin wouldn't spare a sentence or two to lament over what was almost a separate sentience guiding the sand.

A separate sentience.

That was impossible, unless...

Her eyes flicked over to Shiho-nii. Her voice was hardly a whisper as she asked, "Does Suna have any ninja disciplines that utilize some sort of spirit captured in sand?" She'd only ever read of one that manifested in a like manner

Shiho-nii's face settled into tight, angry lines as he took her meaning. "The jinchuriki of Shukaku," he snarled, almost angrier than she'd ever seen him. "Suna has the ichibi. The sand manipulation might be his own, but to use it like this is Kage-level or better. As the Kazekage's son-his father must have..." his voice was drowned in an inarticulate sound of rage and disgust. "It's one thing to raise your children to be soldiers," he railed viciously, "but monsters...!"

Sakura watched him, feeling for the first time the edge of pity. Here, poised on the cusp, it was easy to imagine why Jun thought their kekkei genkai was better than sex, drugs, and violence. There was a sweetness in the annihilation of the weak, cringing self that lived in the daily world. But it was beyond Shiho-nii's reach, just because he'd been born to the white instead of the red. And, somehow, that was sad.

"Monsters and soldiers, we're weapons all the same, Shiho-nii. Some of us just get the benefit of enjoyment in the bargain," she murmured absently, earning herself a sharp look. But she was focused on Gaara again.

Jun's words came to haunt her. Demons were just gods too strange to worship. But neither were infallible. One just needed the right weapons. Which were usually-her gaze wandered to where she knew Naruto was hidden-provided by other spiritual beings.

There was potential there. And in Sasuke too. Deep potential in them both. Friends don't exploit friends, but this was a battle. There were no friends here. Only tools to use.

-\\-\\-/-/-

Naruto was hoping Sakura did the thing with the thinking soon, because he was running short of ideas. He was down to water and a quickset cement mixture, maybe, if they had Sasuke's fire jutsu to dry the stuff. All his pranking experience had taught him that he was at his best with the element of surprise on his side, but Gaara didn't even flinch at any of his usual tactics. He doubted he'd even blink at the sight of a naked woman. And though when surprise failed he could usually grind down his enemies with tenacity, Gaara didn't even look flushed yet even though he'd thrown dozens of Narutoids to their death.

The feedback was unhelpful. He was pretty up on exactly how it felt to be crushed to death, but that sort thing had stopped being exciting back when it had stopped being weird. All it did was reinforce the impression that Gaara was sort of ridiculous.

He didn't flinch when a familiar hand closed on his shoulder. Sakura's scent was distinctive, just like the teme's. Neither of them were nice scents. Sasuke smelt like closed houses and old misery. Sakura normally smelled like a man, the same man who'd lived in the room she lived in. Now her scent had spiked. It was sharp with excitement, edged with a musk he didn't normally associate with battle. He trembled a little under her hand, because there were other things in her scent that he'd never caught before, his own senses heightened by the fight. Her grip tightened in response.

He glanced up at her to find her grip tight on the shaft of her weapon, but it was her eyes that caught his attention. Sakura was controlled, rational, logical to the point of sometimes being a stranger to the rules everybody else just sort of understood by virtue of being a person. But she wasn't looking like any of those things at the moment. She was smiling, eyes dancing, the pupils...odd. He'd seen odd pupils before, but Sakura's were normally, well, normal. Now they were bumpy around the edges, not smoothly circular.

"Your eyes-," he started.

She cocked her head at him almost like her old self, then blinked. The pupils were round again when her eyes opened. "Do you know how Sharingan is activated?"

"Nooo," he drawled slowly. "Are we going to have one of those long, involved conversations that are a _really _bad idea if we want to live to celebrate with ramen? 'Cause if we are, you can skip to the part where you tell me what to do. Promise I'll listen later."

Sakura nodded, eyes twitching to one side like something had drawn her attention, but Naruto didn't sense anything. "Do you think Sasuke-san likes me?"

Naruto blinked. "Say what?"

Sakura repeated the question.

Naruto gaped at her for a moment, then remembered that he'd been the one to point out they didn't have time to chat. "Sure. Of course Sasuke likes you. You're his teammate. I think you freak him out a little, but still-."

"Good," Sakura said sharply. One hand went to stroke the shaft of her over-sized weapon like it was a pet or something. Something fond and strange was in her face, but then she leaped from their hiding place right into Gaara's line of sight.

His gaze zeroed in on her in moments. "_You_," he said accusingly.

"Hello, Gaara-san."

"I'm going to kill you," Gaara snarled, eyes wild and face hardly human in its twisted grimace.

Sakura nodded. "So you've been saying. Are you going to introduce me to 'Mother'? I'll introduce you to Shiho-nii in return. My 'precious person'." She extended her arm until the tip of her guandao aligned with Gaara's chest.

His brain didn't even have time to register how weird it all was before Sakura was charging forward, almost dancing despite the weight of such a bulky weapon. When he saw her like that, he really _got _everything the Academy teachers had droned on about 'being one with your weapon,' though that wasn't really right either.

"What are you doing, Sakura-chan?" Naruto screamed at her, but she ignored him, instead closing the distance between she and Gaara even further.

Naruto sent in another wave of Narutoids, but they were swept away like gnats. From Sasuke's position came a huge wall of flame, but it was met by a wall of sand that buried it in an instant. Sand was shredding trees like they were paper, leaves filling the air like confetti. Sakura in the meantime had managed to get closer to Gaara than either of them and for a crazy moment Naruto thought she was going to do it again, that she was going to kill Gaara like she'd killed Haku and that would be the end of it.

He must have blinked, because one moment Sakura was fine, the next there was a sound he could have sworn shook the forest as she was at last caught, swept up as if by a giant's hand and crushed against a tree. The guandao tumbled from her hand and she made an ugly, broken sound.

And something in his mind _snapped. _

Chakra boiled in his veins, like something red and viscous spilling into the sea of blue, transforming it all to something all teeth and fangs and power. Naruto roared, leaping forward from his branch in a burst of chakra that was enough to shatter it beneath his feet. The little scorch marks he'd left on the bark when learning tree climbing in Wave were like grains of sand in comparison to boulders from the devastation he left in his wake. He was moving almost on all fours, hands scrambling for purchase alongside his feet as he rocketed toward the enemy.

Sakura hadn't had any of her paper explosives, but his did the job well enough when infused with his chakra. The 'limb' of sand was severed in a grainy explosion and he whirled on Gaara, teeth still bared. Behind him, Sasuke caught Sakura's slumping body, but all Naruto's attention was on the red-headed boy across from him. He'd felt sorry about his story before, seen reflections of his own life in the Suna-nin, but he'd ki-hurt Sakura-chan. And for that he would tear him down. And no ultimate defense would save Gaara from that.

-\\-\\-/-/-

There's something odd about the way dead bodies feel. The way they bend, the color of their skin, the pervasive and unnerving chill until the rot sets in to give it a false warmth. Sasuke had never mistaken an unconscious human for a dead one, but Sasuke was almost preternaturally sensitive to the slight signs of life that separated them. For some reason his vision seemed even sharper than usual, but Sakura's vitals were so faint as to be nonexistent. Her pulse beat only weakly, her breathing wouldn't have been enough to stir a leaf placed on her lips. He was familiar with death. Every memory of his childhood was stained by it. He knew she was as good as. Extinguished, with no more thought than a candle snuffed out, for no better reason than whatever sick reason Gaara had in his mind.

Sakura had been right to say Sasuke didn't like killing. Not like this. In the course of duty, in pursuit of a mission, that he understood. He was comfortable with that kind of killing. He was fine with causing that kind of death. But whatever the scope of Gaara's mission, he hadn't done this to achieve any goal. He'd done it because he was a monster.

And Sasuke had made it his central, overwhelming goal to slay the monsters in his life. He'd thought that he didn't have any more room for hate in his heart, but he learned that the heart was something with no finite limits. He could find it in him to hate Gaara for taking Sakura from them. Odd as she was, unnerving as she was, she'd been his teammate. The closest thing he had to family. And it was Gaara's fault that she was dying in his arms, her head tilted back at an angle that looked so uncomfortable he couldn't help but be gentle as he lay her down on the branch.

Suddenly he knew what the new clarity of his vision was. Sharingan.

The legacy of his family, the inheritance that was his birthright.

His path to _him_.

But for now, there was Gaara.

Just in front of them, Naruto was-he looked almost as monstrous as Gaara, his teeth bared, his hair wild, the marks on his face that were almost invisible normally becoming deeper and more savage even as he watched.

"Gaara!" With the roar came an explosion, vicious red chakra so powerful as to be visible spilling over his skin, twisting behind him like a tail.

The shinobi responded by bringing down a crushing arm of sand, but Naruto caught it in his bare hands. The red chakra flared and Naruto sank elongated nails into the surface, almost as he thought he could toss the whole weight of the sand construct. And maybe he might have, but Gaara tried to pull the sand back and Naruto shifted his strategy.

Allowing the momentum of the sand to fling him upwards, Naruto landed atop the sand. What was an appendage made to kill became a bridge between them, Naruto moving at a speed Sasuke'd never before witnessed from him.

But he'd had enough gawking. Now was the time to test the predictive capabilities of the Sharingan.

What was before an impossible game became merely a difficult one. His speed was still limited by his body, while Gaara's sand was less limited, but he could see the miniscule shifts that signaled an attack. However, he found it to be less effective in the face of Gaara's defense, which didn't telegraph itself at all. Not even Naruto in his suddenly enhanced strength seemed to have much effect, though the words he kept shouting at him seemed to be blows that actually hit.

There was a moment that Gaara faltered and something, some part of Sasuke that he didn't listen to often, told him to wait.

That was when the blow seemed to come from nowhere, the _crack _of metal against flesh astoundingly loud as the blade of a too-familiar guandao pierced through the thinned veil of sand, turning only at the last instant to hit Gaara upside the head with the flat of the blade.

As Gaara toppled to the ground, falling from the trees, Sakura was left standing in his place, as whole and well as if he hadn't ever seen her crushed.

"Wh-what? How?" Naruto stuttered, red chakra receding.

"Genjutsu," Sakura answered easily. "The Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu, specifically. It was obvious that if I confronted Gaara, the two of you being who you are, your most acute fear at that moment would be my death. Which is what the genjutsu showed you. Gaara had already set the forest in disarray, which is why you failed to notice the swirling leaves that are an obvious and stupid indicator of the technique, and Gaara a large enough threat that you failed to notice the illusion being what it was. You're more susceptible to genjutsu than I thought you would be, Sasuke-san. I wasn't certain whether the illusion would be sufficient if you handled my 'body' directly, but I miscalculated exactly how intense your fears about the deaths of your teammates might be. I will take that into consideration in the future. After that, it was only a matter of opportunity."

"And you just...stood there and watched us as we thought we were avenging your death?" Sasuke spat.

Sakura blinked at him. "My plan would have been ineffective otherwise, Sasuke-san. I apologize for any emotional distress I might have caused, but it _is _the trigger for your kekkei genkai. Congratulations on your Sharingan, by the way."

"You-," he growled, but he couldn't find any more words.

It was Naruto who found them. "Sakura-chan, what kind of-? Are you nuts? We thought you were _dead_."

She just gave them that look of incomprehension, shifting restlessly as she glanced down to where Gaara had fallen. "That was the intention of the plan, yes."

"You can't do things like that! Ever. Never. Ever. No matter how much you want Sasuke-teme to develop some fancy new eyes or force the-or me to get angry. We like you, Sakura-chan. We don't like to see you get hurt. It hurts _us_ too. Because we're nakama," he concluded. "So don't do it again, okay?"

Sakura's brows furrowed. "That's an interesting theory, though unlikely unless one of us possesses a broadcast-type kekkei genkai that would build a physiological link between us."

Naruto smacked himself in the face with his hand. "You missed the point of that entire conversation. Teammates shouldn't trick teammates into thinking that they're dead."

"They shouldn't emotionally manipulate other teammates at all," Sasuke growled.

"That too," Naruto agreed.

Sakura shrugged. "I can let you die next time, if you prefer." Apparently finished with the conversation, she leaped down from the branch toward were Gaara had impacted the forest floor.

Sasuke and Naruto shared a glance. "I don't like that she has a point," Naruto muttered.

Sasuke scowled. "Just don't tell her that."

"...so who in your family decided they wanted ominous glow-in-the-dark red eyes o' doom that had to be triggered by _trauma_?"

A/N:As you've noticed, and this is the last time I will write this, I have no intentions of reproducing Naruto's 'convert the lost' speeches. Probably ever. Just know that they occur. The first reason being most of you are intimately familiar with the pattern, the second being that I'm so emotionally divorced from the actual manga/anime at the moment I couldn't force myself to rewatch the scene to borrow the dialogue. I didn't like this battle, but sometimes that happens. Gaara didn't get to talk much, but anime-Gaara was barely coherent for most of it, so you'll have to wait for a proper introduction in coming chapters. No Shukaku either. But of course this battle didn't last for three episodes, so no need to depend on the monster that keeps you awake at night. The next chapter? _Itachi. _Now that's the one _I'm _excited to write.


	19. Aftermath and Itachi

The First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Nineteen-

Aftermath and Itachi

There had been blood streaked across Gaara's pale face. She'd smeared her fingers through the warm, sticky liquid, stroking his hair into blood-darkened spikes. The sheer tactility of the exercise sent pleasurable shivers through her and she brushed the pad of her thumb over the swell of his cheek before returning her attentions to his hair. It was such a lovely color and his pale, pale skin was so soft and fragile, so exquisite in its smooth expanse. Except for the lines of the kanji scored on his temple, she was the first to have done real, serious harm.

That sort of made him hers, didn't it? Not hers like the boy she'd taken in Wave, whom she'd stilled forever, but he would wear a scar for all his days, hidden in his blood-red hair. Scars bound people. He would remember this. And so would she. Scars were tangible things, heavy things, chains of different sort than Shiho-nii was. They could make one wise, make one fear, make one rage, reshape far more than flesh.

Scars made people.

And she, in some small way, had made _Gaara. _

She'd indulged her fascination until she'd looked up to find Sasuke staring at her with an expression of disgust.

At the time, she'd been immune to the power of his disapproval, but when her kekkei genkai receded, what passed for her humanity flooded back in. So she'd spent an evening curled solemnly around Shiho-nii, trying to forget the sheer sensation of being so alive and terribly aware of her own power. Pleasure could be a poison, she reminded herself. So many of the Haruno were capable of aping those who lacked their kekkei genkai, but they did not have the same expectations placed on them.

If they fell, what was one more shinobi gone mad in this world of theirs? But if Sakura lived long enough to become head of the clan, she could drag them all down with her. Through blood and bone and chakra, Shiki-dono ruled them now and Sakura would rule them after. Shiki-dono was as he was both because he'd been born to it and because the head must be pristine. Untouched. In her odder moments, the adjective was _sanctified. _

To keep the rest of the clan from becoming monsters, Shiki-dono was the least human of them all.

But she was afraid.

Still, Shiho-nii watched over her.

And, as the village around her grieved for its losses, it did not seem such a bad thing to stand apart from the sobbing, enraged masses. Shiho-nii advised her to keep any and all speculation about the repercussions of the invasion to herself. Having never witnessed so many crying people in a single place as she'd witnessed at the Third's funeral, Sakura did as he suggested.

Though it _was _odd, she'd insisted in the privacy of the house. The Third had been an old man by any standard. That he'd died in battle protecting his village was the most useful end he could've had, likely preferable to dying in a bed as his organs slowly failed him. Humans died. If they didn't, they weren't human. To her it wasn't a complex concept, but she had a dim memory of crying when she'd thought Shiho-nii was gone from her forever. But a shadowy memory was all it was, all the emotion excised from it from what had come after.

She did not tell the Naruto who sobbed in the rain that the last time she'd done something like that had been back when she'd shed tears at scratched knees and the teasing of little girls. Before she'd become _Haruno. _She did not mention to the Sasuke who'd held himself stiff and silent as the rain did its best to conceal the tears he could not control that she had not cried when she had killed main house children who'd had so many years before then, so she could not understand why anyone would cry for a man who'd obviously accomplished more than most humans in the span of his exceedingly and almost improbably long career as a ninja.

Kakashi-sensei did not cry. But as she observed the sober, almost hollow expression on his face, she thought that perhaps jounin cried differently than their students. Not with tears, but with something else. Shiho-nii had told her that for the jounin who were still very human, they never stopped crying. Not really.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sakura's brow was creased in concentration as she tried to make out kanji that had been executed with such carelessness that it they were almost ciphers in themselves.

"All that idiot's notes are going to be written in hiragana from now on," Sasuke grumbled from where he sat next to her on the broad steps of the courtyard, holding the note so that they both could study it. "Because I'm getting something about a long journey with perverts and toads. Or is that supposed to be a compound word?"

Sakura tilted her head slightly and still had no better luck. "I am still not entirely convinced they are actually words, Sasuke-san."

Disgusted by her actions toward Gaara or not, Sasuke had approached her afterwards demanding to know why _she'd _known how the Sharingan was activated.

She might have looked at him like he was slightly dense. _You come from a large and infamous clan, _she'd pointed out. _Enemy-nin and competing clans alike have been observing and recording your kekkei genkai since its development. It is very...flashy and the circumstances that produce it fairly unique. And you are my teammate. It would be unreasonable to assume that knowledge of your clan would not prove useful. And it has been useful, hasn't it? _

Though Sakura was not entirely convinced by Sasuke's interpretation of the note, it remained a fact that Narutowas as absent as Kakashi-sensei. She and Sasuke might have sparred on their own, but he'd seen oddly uneager to do so. She would have further training with Tsubasa-sensei when she returned to Ran-oba-san's house, so she was spending time with Sasuke without being engaged in training, a mission, or waiting for Kakashi-sensei.

It was very strange.

Sasuke eventually folded the note and placed it in his pouch, rising with a sigh. Sakura remained seated, intending to go through some kata with Shiho-nii because Tsubasa-sensei had been developing-or likely simply presenting-her new forms to use with Shiho-nii now that she was finally growing tall enough to use him properly. She had received prior training, of course, but it had been intended as no more than a stop-gap rather than as a permanent and cohesive martial art.

She loved Shiho-nii very dearly, but his form had certainly been a trial for them both.

Saskura only noted belatedly that Sasuke was looking at her expectantly. "Yes?" she queried.

He rolled his eyes. "Just walk with me, alright?" he grumbled.

"...why?"

"Because I want to know _everything _you know about my clan, but I don't want to have that discussion here," he replied bluntly.

Sakura nodded and trailed silently after the other shinobi. In most things, Sasuke-san was obviously the product of a formal clan education, but aside from his direct to the point of rudeness manner of speaking, he also had a habit of slouching his shoulders and walking with his hands in his pockets.

Did he keep hideaway weapons stowed there? Was it a pose of reassurance and self-protection then? Or was it a carefully calculated pose of carelessness, meant to project his confidence at confronting any enemy even though his hands would be temporarily obstructed?

She was torn from her deconstruction of her teammate's habits as he suddenly stiffened and came to a full-stop. Tracing his gaze, she listened in on the conversation that had caught his attention, but before she'd done more than catch the trigger word that had set him off, Sasuke was already sprinting away.

Given that the trigger was _Itachi_, Sakura thought the action highly inadvisable.

She might have let his actions run their course, but recalling all the lectures Kakashi-sensei had given her concerning 'responsibility to one's teammates,' she followed.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

They appeared to have interrupted an abduction.

The larger missing-nin had said something about lopping off his legs to make Naruto easier to transport and Sasuke looked like he was about to have some kind of fit. His breathing ran so uneven that she was concerned that he might pass out, but he still hissed, "Itachi!" like the word was a physical weapon he could stab the other nin with. His chakra had gone erratic and he was emanating wild killing intent.

She eyed him cautiously and slid a little further to one side in order to give herself more room to maneuver.

"And what's this?" the massive former Kiri-nin asked. Sakura had always been more aware of the major figures in the other villages than seemed normal for a Konohagakure shinobi, but after the Wave mission she'd refreshed her memory on the very colorful and storied group to which Zabuza had belonged. It was not difficult to remember a man with a name as telling as Hoshigake Kisame, whose photo had done his coloration and facial gills full justice. She'd been unable to determine if they were actually functional and facilitated his Suiton jutsu or if they simply were a cosmetic indicator of clan affiliation. "He looks just like you, Itachi."

When the other ninja confirmed in what was almost a languorous voice that Sasuke was his younger brother, Sakura thought it might be wise to interfere before Sasuke hurt someone. Given the subject of his ire, most likely himself.

"Pardon us," she said politely, "but Naruto-san is ours."

Hoshigaki's brows arched upwards incredulously. "And you're going to take him, Pinky?"

"I've lived my life like you told me to!" Sasuke snarled, apparently existing temporarily in a time-space dimension that did not include a second very dangerous opponent with a chakra-devouring sword. "I've resented you and hated you and now I'm going to kill you!"

His eyes filled with the red of Sharingan, but Sakura grasped his collar and pulled him back _hard _before he could commit suicide. He turned on her, betrayal writ on his features. Hoshigaki chuckled and Naruto just seemed terribly confused.

"Who is he again?" he asked Sasuke.

"He's the man that murdered my family!" Sasuke roared, tearing himself from Sakura's grasp.

"But," Naruto sputtered in protest, "he just said he's your brother! Why would he do something like that?"

"To test his capacity," Sasuke-san ground out. "That's what you said to me, isn't it, Itachi?"

That was new information and Sakura considered it as she considered the slender, handsome shinobi in front of her. In comparison to Sasuke's erratically crackling chakra, he was the very measure of control. More than that, there was a complete absence of killing intent even though his partner was taking no care to conceal his eagerness to see bloodshed of any kind, even if the battle was to be against three genin.

Naruto caught sight of the expression on her face and signed desperately for her not to say anything, but Hoshikage noticed. "What's she about to say that you don't want us to hear, brat?"

The blond laughed nervously. "Um, probably something traumatizing, honestly."

"Oh?" The sound revealed the jagged triangular teeth of a shark. "Now I'm a curious. Go ahead, Pinky. We got a few seconds. That old man isn't _that _old."

Sakura blinked at him, then turned the part of her attention that wasn't directed at preventing Sasuke from doing anything that would end with having to apologize to the cleaning staff for spattered viscera to his older brother. "Why did you stop?"

The elder Uchiha's eyes narrowed in clear question and she tried to clarify, "With your clan."

Suddenly she felt awkward as she tried to expound on the intuition that there was a dissonance here with this ninja and the official record as Shiho-nii had told it to her. Psychotic breaks, which was the official label given to his actions, did not heal so cleanly, but...

"Once you'd gotten a taste, why...?" she trailed off in frustration. If that had truly been his intent, why focus solely on his clan? Why not the highest ranking and most difficult shinobi targets in the village? If it was something less organized than that, why kill so exclusively rather than simply destroying every unfortunate villager that crossed his path?

But, most of all, why stop at all? Was he so easily satisfied with that? If the question of his capacity had driven him to slaughter all but one of his clan-something was odd there as well, for they'd been a very active shinobi clan, though she supposed he might have hunted those outside the village later though Shiki-dono had mentioned no such thing-why had he not continued to ask that question?

After he'd left the village, there'd been no hint that Uchiha Itachi had continued the killing he'd begun that night. If he'd been Haruno, she would have known what that meant. The Thousand Generation Flower broke the snare of fascination that held them so tightly, but in its absence and in the absence of anything resembling a moral framework, orders took the place of conscience. If he had been Haruno, she would have looked to Shiki-dono to see the hand that moved the strings.

But he was not Haruno. She could not judge him by that standard.

And yet there was something that grated here, something lodged deep that if she continued to worry at might turn into a pearl.

"The question she's really looking to ask," a too-familiar voice said, making the hair at the nape of her neck prickle with anticipation and unease, "is, 'Was it as good for you as it is for me?' The answer, jou-chan, is obvious."

Jun's long braid shifted in counterpoint to his walk as he sauntered up behind Naruto. Something wicked glistened in his eyes, which gleamed brighter than the gemstones that dangled from his ears. "He isn't a Haruno, jou-chan. It's _always_ better for us."

"And who are you?" Itachi-san asked, his voice less inflectionless than before.

"Ran-oba-san says he's what you'd get if you bred a dog and a cockroach. Impossible to kill and always disturbing to watch," Sakura offered, hand shifting towards Shiho-nii's sealed form even as he materialized at her side. He'd encouraged her to spend the morning with her teammates, working on her own social skills rather than being so dependent on his cues, but now she regretted allowing him to remain dormant so long.

Jun laughed throatily. "That nasty old bag."

"Do you follow Sakura-chan everywhere?" Naruto-san exclaimed, looking torn between being comforted by the presence of a dangerous adult and being unnerved by this particular one standing behind him. Naruto-san really did have excellent instincts.

The taller shinobi glanced down at him. "Every little girl needs a pet. Better if it has teeth and claws." His gaze traveled slowly up to focus on the ex-Kiri-nin, his smile growing edges. "But it's no good if I'm muzzled, jou-chan. And we aren't in Konohagakura now."

Hoshigaku-san had been regarding him narrowly, but if he recognized Jun, he said nothing. Instead he returned hardly concealed eagerness with a bloodthirsty smile of his own. With a smooth movement, he shifted the enormous sword from his back. "You won't be so eager when I slice you to shreds."

Jun's eyes caught Sakura's. "Unleash me. And watch properly. They tell you what it takes, because they don't want you to think about what it _gives. _The first flower-when that crocus breaches the snow-it does not take fear. It breathes _joy_," he told her. "The center isn't empty. It's so full that if they did not encircle us, we would spill over unto all the world."

Her eyes slid to Sasuke and Naruto, but she knew that this was not a battle that could be won with their current numbers without some kind of sacrifice. Shiho-nii offered her a stiff nod and with that she unsealed him, letting the chakra that always lay dormant and waiting spike.

_This is not a person. This is an obstacle_. The chant from long ago filled her as she turned to address the issue of removing her teammates from this place without incurring irreparable damage. She'd seen Naruto's fine trembling in the face of Hoshigaki's bloodlust, but it was a visible, full-body shudder as Jun let the flower of madness bloom. And Sasuke. The nearly tangible wave of killing intent as Jun slipped on his clawed gauntlets had jarred him from his strangely intent fixation on Itachi and he was instead staring wide-eyed as black petals spread from the pupil to fill the field of green.

Jun was an aberration. Only his flower bloomed so hot and warm in its final stage, but he was a beautiful grotesque.

She trembled as well, but for an entirely different reason. Her hand was steady, however, as she took hold of Sasuke's wrist. "Escape," she breathed, knowing that her own eyes were reflecting something she hadn't wanted to show either of her teammates. "You're not strong enough to finish it cleanly." _Lie. He wasn't strong enough to begin. _Jun had already lunged at Hoshigaki and they were running far too short on time for her to cater to Sasuke's sudden, inexplicable loss of any tactical sense he'd ever shown. "We need to get Naruto and _leave_," she insisted.

Sasuke tried to shake her off, but she tightened her grip. And smiled. "If you get us killed here, Sasuke-san, it won't be your brother who drives the kunai home." Sasuke tried to turn his head away, but she caught his chin and forced him to meet her eyes. She was not Naruto. She could not sway him on the strength of ephemeral bonds she wouldn't feel if she was forced to use her kekkei genkei to its full potential. She could already feel the petals pressing against the surface, aching to spread. And Sasuke had such terribly pretty eyes.

But not so exquisite as the heavily-lashed eyes of his brother, who had stepped toward them rather than shifting to secure Naruto while Hoshigaki was busily trying to maim Jun. Sakura noted that as she released Sasuke and shifted Shiho-nii to a defensive position. Not that it would matter. Unless he'd faltered mightily in the time since he'd slaughtered the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Itachi was swifter and more decisive in battle than even Hatake Kakashi.

And unlike their sensei, he wouldn't be testing her.

A/N: Right when Sakura's thinking about Itachi, this is what Naruto might have said in a less serious situation: "Sakura-chan, please don't talk. I know that's it's become your place to traumatize Sasuke, but just, no."

I haven't decided. Itachi or Sasuke POV next chapter? And I know it's short, but I wanted to do a pre-Christmas release.


	20. I, Monster

A/N: Merry Christmas!

First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Twenty-

I, Monster

The plan, such as it was, was to inspire a few moments of true terror into the young jinchuriki, for Akatsuki was a very real threat. No matter the care Itachi took in delaying the collection of the Kyuubi, his protection or prevarication could never become obvious and so could never be a wholly secure shield.

Kisame might act the part of a man capable of being led by his bloodlust, but he was a shinobi very much in control of his actions. Itachi had possessed few worries that he would actually maim the child before Jiraiya would conveniently intervene, though he didn't doubt the Sage was enjoying acting the fool with his genjutsu.

The Sannin were all three incredible ninja, but more than their strengths, they were made unforgettable by their...habits.

But he had not anticipated the appearance of Sasuke.

He looked well, was his first relieved thought, though he seemed to have developed no resistance to his embedded suggestion with the development of his own Sharingan. That was worrying, because a lack of resistance to genjutsu or the hypnotic-eye component of the Sharingan meant an inherent weakness to the monstrous Curse that fueled their kekkei genkei. It was telling that he had chosen to hear only of 'hatred' rather than Itachi's desire for him to live.

He would have charged Itachi recklessly and Itachi would have been forced to put on a very convincing display of the infamous clan-killer.

Itachi would have done so, because his actions kept Sasuke inviolate from the monsters Itachi could not slay.

But there was a presence even more wholly unexpected than his brother. He'd tracked his brother's progress as best he could, but though he'd known Hatake Kakashi and the Kyuubi's newest vessel and thought long and hard about the implications of that upon Sasuke's development, there was very little information to be had about Haruno Sakura.

The obligatory kunoichi, whose only shinobi relative was a jounin better known for his gentle temper than any of his skills. Water affinity, remarkable resistance to genjutsu. But without established clan traits, it would be impossible to predict if the young girl would inherit any of that. It hadn't even been terribly clear how they were related, though his mother had taken the girl in after her parents had died.

Genin had no business being so controlled in the face of Kisame, whose chakra might well have been that of a tailed-beast aside from his frightening physical appearance. And though he himself was not frightening in the same ways, he should have inspired at least some measure of trepidation even if the girl wasn't fully aware of him and his capabilities.

But despite petal-pink hair and a petite, delicate frame made more so by an ill-fitting top, her expression reminded him of nothing so much as a more lively version of the Root operatives he'd had the misfortune to work with in the past. No fear, just an unnerving kind of consideration.

And then had walked in a man he'd known of only through Bingo book entries, though it was very likely that Kisame might have known him personally. Kurutta-inu had seemed a distinctive moniker to bear, but with his first words Itachi began to sense that it was well-earned.

And that insane dog knew his little brother's team. Identified himself as some kind of 'pet' to the little kunoichi, asked _permission _of her for something Itachi didn't understand until his chakra shifted. He'd been going blind since he'd first developed the Mangekyo, using it recklessly because he had no plans of living long enough for it to become a handicap greater than the disease preying on his body. The Sharingan was not the Byakugan and he was no sensor-type, but the man was projecting so freely he didn't need either.

With the shift in his chakra came a change in his eyes, his pupils pulling in as spines radiated out to touch the rim of his irises, expanding to become black-edged petals. First three, but before it had finished, they were too many to count so easily. The last time he'd seen such a clear ecstatic state it had been in Hidan. He'd known other shinobi who enjoyed battle, of course, but that heavy-lidded look that this Haruno Jun wore should never have a place where other people could see.

Uchiha Itachi was a private person by both nature and training and if saying it aloud wouldn't have earned him a ribbing from Kisame and broken his personal protocol of maintaining an air of inscrutability during missions, he would have said he almost felt sullied by it. Like it was something that might be contagious.

But whatever his opinion of the shinobi's state of mind, he was undeniably very good. Close-combat styles fared badly against Kisame. The former Kisa-nin had strength, reach, and chakra on any opponent, even without factoring in Samehada's unique abilities. If he didn't have the bad habit of baiting his opponents, Kisame could kill most shinobi on their first approach. Jun used clawed gauntlets, which necessitated extremely close combat, extending his reach by less than eight inches.

Samehada didn't even graze him close enough to shear his chakra, but his claws opened furrows in Kisame's Akatsuki cloak. For a shinobi, not terribly close, but close enough to really draw Kisame's interest. His Sharingan automatically catalogued and processed things other shinobi would never see as he did-how Jun was unusually flexible for a male ninja, though the terrible scarring on his back should have compromised it, how quickly his eyes began to track Kisame's movements, the almost unnatural rapidity with which he recovered from his headlong lunge, a movement normally so foolish that it wasn't an action to be expected from someone who'd once carried a jounin rank- but his attention was drawn to his brother.

Because the girl's hand was very close to Sasuke's throat and though she was wearing a smile, that wasn't a genin's killing intent at work. It wasn't even a jounin's, truly. It was something eerier than that. It wasn't something as intangible as the fear he'd known when the Kyuubi came or in the innumerable battles he'd seen. This was almost something shifting in the air-like to believe in it might make it real enough to kill. He couldn't decide if it was genjutsu or ninjutsu or some kekkei genkei fusion of the two, but that was immaterial.

Her eyes turned to meet his fearlessly-or foolishly-and her eyes seemed to brighten. Her question hung heavy in his mind, as did Jun's innuendo-filled follow-up. She hadn't asked why a brother might turn on his clan. Her question had been, _Once you'd gotten a taste, why... _

It didn't take any tricks of Sharingan prognosis to imagine what her question was.

If his purpose was to truly test his capacity, why had he stopped? Why had Uchiha Itachi slaughtered an entire clan and then faded in obscurity to re-emerge as part of Akatsuki, which was not in the business of mass murder so much as underselling established villages?

He had many answers prepared for many questions, but none for that one. Because that wasn't a question that belonged in the mouth of a village-nin. And if fellow missing-nin experienced much curiosity about his person, they tended not to ask.

"You're Haruno Sakura," he observed, modulating his tone carefully so as to not express any of those thoughts.

"Yes, Itachi-san," she said, not loosing her regained grip on Sasuke, but carefully keeping the guan-dao she'd unsealed in a defensive position.

"Your companion identified himself as a Haruno as well, but when he was still affiliated with a village, that wasn't the name he used."

"The blood wasn't as telling back then," Sakura replied. "We don't need the name. It doesn't make the difference."

Sasuke tried to jerk his arm free, but it was a futile exercise. "Let me go," he snarled. "Let me _go, _Sakura! I'm going to kill him!"

"Let him try, if he likes," Itachi said.

"There will be lots of paperwork if Sasuke-san dies and we don't have authorization to be outside the village. And scolding by Kakashi-sensei." Sakura peered at him. "You really don't feel it at all, do you? You're _free_," she said enviously.

"...free?" Itachi had never once felt free in his entire life. First the expectations of his father, then the orders of his village, then the plotting of a madman had left him nothing more than a very cleverly jointed puppet to act in their plays.

Her eyes slid over to Sasuke, then back to him. "The fascination." Her pupils began to retract, the black spines emerging as nubs but not becoming fully blown petals. Just enough for him to see them, then they were swallowed up again. As is she'd forced them back. "You don't _enjoy _it," she said accusingly. Then she seemed to consider her own words. "That must be very difficult for you, Itachi-san."

"Sakura!" Sasuke barked, wrenching himself loose at last.

This time she really frowned at him. "Itachi-san-"

"Why are you still talking to him like that?" Sasuke bellowed. "What don't you get? He _murdered _my family? If it was your family, would you just step aside?"

Sakura blinked. "You don't want me to answer that, Sasuke-san."

"Yes, I do! Because you'd do the same, so get the hell out of my way!"

"No," Sakura replied softly, "I wouldn't."

Jun laughed again, his concentration apparently not wholly on his battle with Kisame. It cost him, blood spattering as Samehada tore off all the flesh on the top of his left shoulder. He didn't even flinch. "You always did look like a cold fish," he jested, "but I think you'll be warm inside. Cold hands, warm chest cavity. That's the way humans work, jou-chan."

Itachi's attention was not distracted, but he couldn't say he'd expected her to choose that moment to sign a retreat to her teammate trapped opposite them, the hand that had been so recently keeping Sasuke back full of kunai trailing streamers of paper explosives. Jun was clearly more aware of this tactic, as he launched himself out of the way, catching up the slower genin before the blast could catch either of them. Sakura had caught Sasuke a blow with the pole of her guan-dao, digging in her feet and leaping with him still partially doubled over the shaft. Neither he nor Kisame were injured either, which meant that pursuit wouldn't have been an issue.

Thankfully, the Toad Sannin chose just that moment to make his appearance.

But Itachi had seen enough already, the Mangekyo giving him an unnerving momentary glimpse when he'd tried to probe deeper in Haruno Sakura's mind. Just for an instant, a tall, sober figure in billowing robes had seemed to meet his eyes from where he loomed protectively over the young shinobi. And, from the scene of Kisame's battle, he had sensed _human _chakra emanating from the bone-white senbon the insane dog wore in his hair.

There was far more to Haruno Sakura than had appeared in her dossier. He would discover whether or not she was a danger far closer to Sasuke than either Danzo or Madara. And if she was, he would protect his little brother. Just as he always had.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Naruto's jacket was liberally soaked in blood. Not his blood, but Jun's. His shoulder looked like someone had tried to wedge him into a meat grinder, but he'd tossed Naruto over it with a grinning carelessness that bypassed 'cool' and edged toward 'all is not right with this one'.

As Naruto kept a wary eye on the escalating argument-alright, so mostly it was Sasuke revealing more emotion than Naruto had ever seen from the other boy-that was occurring what Jiraiya had decided was still a safe distance away, the old man was trying to bind up Jun's shoulder.

"You're going to have to have this looked at by a medic-nin. Though you're not acting like it hurts-kekkei genkei?"

Jun's grin didn't waver as he tilted his head toward Sakura, his long bangs and dangling earrings shifting with the movement. "It's part of the kekkei genkei, yes. The pain will come when jou-chan decides to bring it."

A skeptical expression crossed Jiraiya's face. "What? You just do what she tells you? Isn't she a little young to be in that kind of a S&M relationship?"

As Naruto tried not to decide whether he should snicker, gag, or marvel at how much sense that made, Jun's eyelids fell, not so much masking the expression of satisfaction that flowed into his face but enhancing it. "Jou-chan's learning. As a child, she's got _me_. If she survives, when she's grown, she'll bring them all to their knees. Then, she'll be the oyakata-sama."

Deep satisfaction just seemed to spill from him as he lounged, shirtless and bloodied, eyes fixed on Sakura in a way that made Naruto want to snap at him to _stop that, Sakura-chan was weird enough already_.

"Is all the girl's family like you?" Jiraiya asked him in consternation.

"That _would _be why it's called a kekkei genkei," Jun replied.

"I don't remember any bloodline that manifests like yours in Konoha."

Jun laughed then. "No, you wouldn't. Konoha doesn't like bloodlines like ours."

"Like ours?" Jiraiya prompted as he finished he field treatment and made the med-kit he'd produced disappear back into a dozen hidden pockets that apparently served him instead of more standard equipment pouches.

But Jun offered no more answers.

Naruto thought that was probably for the best. If this conversation moved into the spirit of confessions, he'd have to think about explaining to his teammates about the flooded basement room and the truth he'd discovered while suffering through training with Ebisu-sensei. About chakra and red chakra and a voice that wasn't his, offering things he didn't want to take. But he had. In the battle against Gaara. It was why he'd come out here, with the pervy-sage. He could live without summoning giant toads, but he'd seemed to _know_. About the thing inside him. He wasn't stupid, he could guess what it was, but he didn't want to admit it.

It had helped against Gaara, but he didn't think it could be trusted. People hardly ever showed their cruel face first and he didn't that it would be much different. If the old man could teach him to control it, it would worth bearing with the sad realization that Jiraiya of the Legendary Three reverted to a mental age of about sixteen every time he laid eyes on a girl with a B-cup or better.

Naruto had been _really _unimpressed so far, but he held out hope that the pervy-sage would operate like Kakashi-sensei. The more general weirdness, the more impressive when he was actually serious.

Unfortunately, unlike his two teammates _still at it_ across the way, he'd pretty much blinked in the hall after Jiraiya had sealed away the black fire Sasuke's brother had used to escape and all the awesomeness had pretty much evaporated, even though he was pretending to be a total idiot at the moment. He had a feeling that would change.

Naruto sighed and consoled himself on the thought that at least he wouldn't be making the journey back to the village with Sasuke and Sakura. He was more than happy to let his two emotionally stunted teammates fend for themselves this once. Because he could see both their points and wanted none of their little-alright, not _little-_argument. For once, they were going to have to figure things out for themselves.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sasuke had raged at Sakura until he was hoarse, but she'd just watched him with those impossibly impassive eyes. "Don't you even care?" he shouted, aware that the white-haired man who'd saved them was eyeing them from the edge of the field he'd brought them to after Itachi had escaped. Right there, within his reach, and he'd never even gotten to attack. "He's a murderer!"

She finally looked a bit piqued at that. "Sasuke-san, I used paper explosives in a civilian place of business. If, by chance, someone had died in one of the rooms because of that, I would also be a murderer. We weren't here on a sanctioned mission. And after thanking Jiraiya-sama, we should return to the village before someone notices we're missing. You wouldn't let me stop and fill out the log properly."

"...I can't stand you," Sasuke snarled at her. "Don't you ever feel anything at all? All you do is stand there and judge me and you don't know _anything_!"

Her eyes slid to one side, taking in something that wasn't there, then she looked at him. "No, I don't. I don't know what you're feeling, Sasuke-san. But I would like it if you tried to explain. And if you come to Ran-oba-san's house tomorrow, he'll be there." She said 'he' with an odd intonation, almost as if it should be a proper noun. "If he says I can, we can...talk," she ventured uncertainly.

Sasuke didn't want to talk to Sakura. He hardly even wanted to look at her, even when they'd gotten a quasi-lecture by the man-apparently the Sannin Jiraiya-and been sent back to the village like civilian children caught doing something they shouldn't.

But he found himself at her house the next day regardless, because there had been a moment in the hallway when he'd considered cutting through Sakura to get to Itachi.

He reassured himself that he didn't feel guilty for that, both because she had no right to stand between him and his brother and because he hadn't _actually _done it. But he felt...odd. Like he wasn't quite comfortable in his own skin. He hadn't slept, instead revisiting obsessively the long minutes in the hall, but the closer it grew toward dawn, the more he felt like the hot-headed boy who'd tried to lunge at Itachi wasn't him at all, but a stranger.

Sasuke had mercilessly mocked Naruto for using the same tactics on far less dangerous enemies. It was as if all the grueling hours of training, the careful minutes where he'd mapped out how he could counter each of his brother's techniques, the careful bridle he'd put on his emotions-all that disappeared, as if it had never existed. Though it galled him to admit it, even if he'd better jutsu, it wouldn't have been his jutsu that had lost him the fight. It would have been his loss of control.

That was why Itachi always won, after all. Because nothing could touch him.

Almost like nothing could touch Sakura.

He rapped on the door and the older woman who'd been so dismissive of them when they were preparing to leave for Wave answered. "You're here after all," she said shortly as she let him in. "This way."

She led him inside and showed him into a room they hadn't visited last time he was here. The woman closed the door behind him, not entering the room herself, which was so odd it would have made him question regardless of what was waiting for him inside. Sakura was inside, sitting patiently in the seiza position with her back to the door. The scroll in which he knew she sealed her weapon was sitting carefully to one side.

She wasn't alone.

The rest of the house was modern, but this one room was an aberration. As far as Sasuke knew, Sakura's guardian was a baker. There would be no need for a formal room such as this, done in the Shoin style. But the very strangeness of it better helped it hold the three very different men in the room with Sakura. Two sat about midway along the room, just behind Sakura, turned at roughly 45 degree angles to the wall so that they could easily watch both Sakura and the man who sat at the far end of the room.

He focused on the nearer men first. One was the odd nin that called himself Sakura's dog. The other was a stranger, but he dismissed him almost immediately.

Because the real threat in this room was watching him with eyes that were the exact shade of green that Sakura's were, but infinitely colder. And he was _smiling._

"So this is the littlest Uchiha," he said, beckoning him forward. Begrudging, Sasuke came to sit next to Sakura, but he pointedly did not sit seiza. This seemed to move the man not at all. "You have been in our Sakura's care. I hope you did not find it too rough. She has informed me she should like to speak with you more frankly. However, to do so might raise some sensitive topics and therefore she brought you to me."

"And who are you?" Sasuke asked boldly.

"To you? No one in particular. A wind that brushes against a flower and moves past. But to Sakura, I am the head of her line."

"Head? You don't look like the head of a civilian clan."

"I make no such claims. However, I fear that I must demand some circumspection from you."

"Wh-" The question caught in his throat, because seals appeared on the walls, the ceiling, and the floor upon which he sat and he felt it take in a tight knot of chakra at his throat. He shoved down his panic, but he could feel his perceptions shift as his Sharingan activated.

"You would need at least Mangekyo to resist my sealing," the man informed him in that off-handedly pleasant way. "Though you seem unusually susceptible to intrusion by foreign chakra. If you intend to keep him, Sakura, you'll need to guard him well."

"Yes, oyakata-sama," Sakura replied demurely.

The man's attention came back to Sasuke. His building outrage was immediately doused by the feeling that if a kunai could have sentience, having its attention might feel the same as this man's eyes. If he leaned forward, he had an uncanny fear that he might bleed. "It does nothing more than require your silence. Your sensei is under the same seal."

Sasuke's mind balked at the thought of this man being powerful enough to fix a seal on Hatake Kakashi. But then, he reminded himself, it wasn't like Kakashi was a renowned fuinjutsu specialist. And if he'd saturated his chakra into the walls before he'd ever entered the room, that might explain why he hadn't sensed the trap. Or, maybe, this man really was that strong.

His eyes had been on him while Sasuke's thoughts raced, but he hadn't spoken. "So," Sasuke said, forcing the words through slightly numb lips, "you're a shinobi clan?"

"In a matter of speaking, though many choose to avoid their bloodline rather than embracing it. So long as it does not manifest, that is their right. I exist for those for whom it does manifest. Our kekkei genkei." His eyes shifted, filling with petals and the sense of dread that Sasuke felt became a tangible weight. It wore very heavily not only on him, because the two men went down in dogeza, Sakura following with a deliberateness that he supposed was meant to show she did it more freely.

Sasuke struggled against it, sweat breaking out on his forehead as he refused to give in to the intimidation. The man chuckled, blood-dark lashes sweeping down over his eyes and concealing the moment when his eyes returned to normal. "If you can't learn to bend," he said, "someday someone with less care _will _break you. He is yours, Sakura. Take him to your room. I came today to consult with Tsubasa about your lessons, rather than with the intention of facilitating useless bonds."

His eyes were Sakura's shade of green and he too did the motion where they swept slightly to one side, as if he was looking at something Sasuke couldn't see. A brow arched, seemingly in reaction to that invisible entity, but Sakura was already shuffling backwards out of the room on her knees, without turning her back on the seated man. Sasuke stood, ignoring the way his legs trembled, and then very pointedly turned his back on the him.

When they'd escaped-left, he corrected himself-the room, he grabbed Sakura and effortlessly retraced their path from his last visit to the room that still looked as if no little girl had ever stepped foot in it.

"What. Was. That," he demanded tightly.

Sakura looked at him and sighed. She silently tried to offer him a seat on the bed, but he just glared at her. "You asked me yesterday, Sasuke-san, if I wouldn't do the same if someone had killed my family. I could not answer that without the oyakata-sama's permission."

"And?"

She frowned at him. "Shiki-dono-the oyakata-sama-is the head of our family. I am his heir. Chance of birth decides this in other families, but Shiki-dono is related to me only distantly. He is forbidden from having children, so any may put forward their own children forward as one suitable to inherit. They allow us to play together, when they first bring us to the compound. It makes a better test, I suppose, as well as keeping us from being underfoot. And then the heir-candidates are asked to do one very simple task in order to prove that they are the one most suitable to follow Shiki-dono."

"And what is that?" Sasuke prompted with increasing impatience.

"We prove our capacity," Sakura answered him.

A/N: The Haruno clan seemed to take some of their cues from The Bacchae this chapter. Divine ecstatic madness, less the divine, is what Jun embodies, while the head of the clan is the embodiment of cold rationality brought to the opposite extreme. Some people make playlist suggestions, I suggest Greek tragedies. But the last chapter did make something very clear. There are a _lot _of Itachi fans reading this.


	21. What Monster is This?

A/N: If I was operating solely on number of reviews earned, I don't think I'd ever update any story but this one. I don't work on such a system, but that doesn't mean that you guys are anything less than wonderful. The sheer volume of support has been amazing. There's some roughness with spelling and the like in the past two chapters-due to speed of publication and the fact that when you've got some mild flu, you're very impressed to find that grammar seems to be a _mostly _automatic function-and I'll get around to smoothing that out when the well of creativity runs low. Anyhow, you made convalescence grand.

First Flower of Spring

-Chapter Twenty-One-

What Monster is This?

_That's not funny. _

_You're lying. _

_What are you trying to do, Sakura? _

"No," was what escaped his lips, numb with the feeling he'd been plunged into a nightmare unreality.

It was like _that night_, his body frigidly cold even though it had been warm then too.

"You can't mean it like that. You're still-you would've been a _child_," he said plaintively.

"If they wait, it becomes a test of our skill as shinobi, rather than the bloodline," Sakura explained patiently.

"But _why_?" he demanded roughly.

"To inherit the will of the clan. To prove oneself the apex of the generation. Would those be reasons you would be capable of believing, as you once believed your brother? Because these things would be lies. To be human means that we do things for smaller, more selfish reasons." A small, unutterably complex smile touched her lips. "I did it because there is someone I love beyond all temperance and reason. Shiho-nii _is_ the world to me. For him, I couldn't do anything less. I killed fewer people than your brother, but only because that was all that asked of me."

Sasuke could only stare at her, bound up in feelings of betrayal and a creeping rage. "What do you mean, 'believed my brother'?"

She tilted her head. "You can't see it? Not even now that you've met people like Jun or Hoshigaki-san? Both would kill because the opportunity was there, because that's what gives them pleasure. Whatever the reason your brother slaughtered your clan and however he achieved it, I don't think he enjoyed it. Otherwise, it would not have been his only massacre. If you define it as ten or more people killed in a single event, Jun has committed at least three and Hoshigaki-san has no less than five confirmed instances to his name. But Itachi-san has only the one."

"Did you?" he snarled the accusation rather than contemplate _that man's _state of mind when he'd done what he'd done. And he had no desire to hear Sakura apply her odd brand of logic to that night, because he'd learned that things he took for granted tended to come apart in her hands. "Did you enjoy it?!"

Sakura regarded him steadily, lips pursed thoughtfully and brows furrowed, as if they weren't in the middle of an argument that threatened to destroy their bonds entirely, but as if she was trying to think of the best way to explain a new technique.

"Your kekkei genkai is awoken and fueled by negative emotions, by hatred and loss and desolation. You call yours 'Sharingan', but we don't have separate name for ours. We only name the stages. In First Flower and during the Dance of the Falling Petals, we do enjoy it. It's...like a drug, maybe. They take you out of yourself, above yourself, turns the whole world into a bejeweled hummingbird you can hold in your hand and crush at will. It makes you feel as if you were a god. They are powerful in their own right, but they're also the jaws of the trap, slowly closing in about you as first you learn to enjoy them, then you learn to depend on them. After that, it takes only a moment of carelessness. For most of the clan, the Thousand Generation Flower, the final stage, snatches back those feelings entirely, taking with it as much as it gives. The perfect shinobi-the perfect weapon-cannot act out of self-interest, cannot be very _human _at all."

"For most, it's an inescapable state on their own. The head of the clan is an exception and Jun is another, but Jun is an aberration. It's a drug of a different kind. Under the Thousand Generation Flower, the limits are all shattered. Faster reflexes, incredible strength, the ability to ignore wounds that would in any other situation kill from shock alone-but they are as numb to the wonder of it as a thrown kunai. I was the heir and my final test, perhaps more important than the one that was intended to drive me to the Thousand Generation Flower state, was to bring myself back, which is something impossible for a weapon."

"In the Thousand Generation Flower especially, but in all of the states beyond blooming, people are...I don't know how to properly explain it, but they're...quantified somehow. Their intrinsic value as a human being is stripped. There is nothing inherently precious about human life. When you're in the Flower, or at least, when I'min Flower, there's no more emotion attached to the destruction of a person than there is to a paper doll. It just _is_."

"And you think that makes it less _wrong_?" he roared, making a violent motion with his hand.

Sakura shrugged, another faint smile crossing her lips, this one clearly unhappy. "It's not like-," her lips twisted and she tried again. "It's not as if I don't notice that there is a difference between how I see the world and how you and Naruto see it. It's just difficult for me to understand it, like a game where no one has bothered to explain the rules."

"No one should _have _to explain it," Sasuke growled.

Her brows furrowed more deeply. "Shouldn't they? When I'd killed all the other children, my clan congratulated me. Mothers whose sons died at my hands offered me loyalty, fathers whose daughters never saw the light of day again worked to put down the rebellion of a woman who thought the practice 'monstrous'. That is the 'normal' of my clan, Sasuke-san. But I didn't seek permission from Shiki-dono to tell you about the clan so that we could debate its morality."

"Then why did you?" he accused. "Why would you think I'd ever _want _to know something like this? When you knew-" his voice broke, dropped low and harsh, "when you _knew _what _he _did, why-?!"

"Because I didn't understand, not until I saw you together. And I understood then that you didn't understand, either. You think to yourself that you will sever any bonds, go to any lengths, but you never acknowledge outright what that means. The path you're setting yourself on, Sasuke-san-you're trying to destroy your brother by becoming him. But you're _not _Itachi. And you're not Haruno, either. You can do it, if Itachi-san continues to play this strange game, but it will hurt you, Sasuke-san. You pretend desperately not to care, because it does touch you. The world has left you raw and bleeding and yet you can't let it _go_. So you'll walk this path and carve out your own heart, learn cruelty in self-defense and at the end, when your brother is dead? You will be a far worse monster than he ever was, because you care _too much_."

"I am not telling you what you should do, Sasuke-san, because I don't think you would listen, but you're blind. You cannot see past your brother and the goal that you've shaped your life around, so I thought to show you beyond it. Itachi-san and I, we're similar, in a way. There is a distance in us that you lack, that makes you very human, but it means that we can walk away from our atrocities no less than we walked into them. It does not _take _from us, because there is a lack in us to begin with. But you-you're human." She said it like an accusation. "And that means that you're capable of far more monstrosity than either of us, because you'll bring hate and rage, where we bring only an objective."

"Stop trying to _justify _him to me!" Sasuke hissed, trying to stomp out of the room and escape the conversation, but Sakura stood between him and the door and he'd noted the seals on the window the instant he'd stepped into the room.

"You're not listening," Sakura said, now clearly frustrated. "This is not a conversation about Uchiha Itachi, not really, though I can't help what I notice and no one else seems to mention. This is a conversation about _you_. Orochimaru was the first, but he won't be the last to attempt to take advantage of your obsession. If you don't care that you will shame your family name beyond all salvation by taking the quickest path to power, that is your decision to make."

Sasuke froze, her words sinking in despite his intention to ignore them. That was something he hadn't considered at all, for all that the memory of his clan was something so precious to him. Uchiha Itachi had occasionally been whispered of as the monster the clan had made him and he'd hated those people for the implication that it was the clan's fault that his brother had killed them all. But if he _did _take Orochimaru's offer-if he did what he'd steeled himself to do and took any road necessary to reach Itachi and drive a kunai through his heart-how would people remember the Uchiha then?

_See_, he could almost hear them whisper, _that clan was cursed. It raised up only monsters. _

And they would be wrong, but he couldn't kill people for talking about what they couldn't understand, though in the bleak future Sakura had painted with her words, perhaps that Sasuke could.

But did he want to be that Sasuke?

No matter what else she'd twisted, Sakura had been right in one thing. He hadn't looked beyond his brother. He hadn't bothered to consider what might come after, because his brother was _Itachi. _Killing him was the dream that haunted him, but _surviving _him? Sasuke tried to imagine it-life after Itachi-and found nothing. He'd announced that he would restore his clan when Team Seven had made their introductions, but what had he _meant_?

His clan's honor? Their reputation? More literally, would he find a woman to bear him children, carry his clan's blood and legacy forward?

Sasuke couldn't say.

But if he couldn't, who could?

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

"You didn't tell him everything," Shiho-nii said quietly when a very subdued Sasuke had left.

"I told him what would make him think. Push him too far and Sasuke stops thinking," Sakura mumbled into her pillow as she collapsed on the bed. Sasuke was deeply broken in ways she couldn't comprehend and dealing with him was exhausting, but she felt a niggling sense of responsibility for him. For Naruto as well, but Naruto was self-sufficient in ways that Sasuke simply wasn't. "Did I do wrong, Shiho-nii?"

"No," he soothed. In her imagination, he sat on the bed, mattress dipping with his weight, and he touched a reassuring hand to her shoulder or perhaps tugged gently at her braid to draw her attention. In reality, he could do none of these things, but she'd unsealed his weapon-body and the hard length of it lay trapped between her body and the softness of the bed. "I think you made me very proud, Sakura. Shiki-dono wouldn't have bothered. All he might have done was kill him himself, when he'd already left the path. You're being a good friend. And that boy certainly needs one."

"I doubt that Sasuke-san sees me as a 'good friend' at the moment."

Shiho-nii chuckled softly. "No. But I think he will see it for what it is. He's not a fool, just very angry. And he's been left alone with that anger, living with nothing more than ghosts when it would have been better to foster him with another clan. Unlike the Haruno, who come together only to let their children kill each other in the tunnels, the Uchiha were a very tight-knit clan. He lost more than just a mother, father, and brother that day. There wouldn't have been a time in his childhood when an aunt, uncle, or cousin was more than shouting distance away."

Sakura turned her head so that she could stare at Shiho-nii's translucent form. "...it must be hard for him," she said as she mulled it over. "And I was very cruel."

"He makes it harder, because he's turned himself into a priest keeping the shrine to the Uchiha. He only knew them as a child who loved them and was beloved of them, so it would be like-," he paused. "I suppose it would be like someone destroyed something you saw no evil in-"

"You," Sakura murmured and was rewarded by a brief smile.

"But I'm human, Sakura, and I have a human's flaws. A clan is the sum of the people within it, so all their faults can be either ameliorated or amplified. In the case of the Uchiha, they were proud, arrogant, and insular, but a child wouldn't recognize any of this. And he's determined not to see them in any other way. Sasuke doesn't want to acknowledge that his clan might bear any fault in producing Itachi."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully. "Why do you think Shiki-dono agreed to place the seals?"

"Because you asked. I would say that he isn't completely heartless, but that feels very close to lying. You are his heir and a full member of the Haruno clan. You may, within reason, share the truth of the clan with who you choose, so long as you understand that you must also take responsibility for them in their knowledge. Not all the spouses were as surprised as your mother when the clan gathered."

Sakura worried her lip. "One day," she said softly, "it will be my responsibility to set the seals. And to protect the clan from those too in love to see weakness, like Katsuo was. When things go wrong."

"Yes," Shiho-nii replied, his voice just as soft. "But for now, leave it to Shiki-dono. He's stolen your childhood. This is the least he can repay you with," he said flatly. "Do you intend to tell Naruto?"

Sakura nodded slowly. "I want to wait. Until he's ready to talk about the Kyuubi. It's only fair, when he confesses to be the vessel of a tailed-beast, that I tell him that I'm a monster of a different color. Reciprocity."

"You're not a monster," Shiho-nii reminded her firmly. "If potential was promise, we'd _all _be monsters."

Sakura wondered what made Shiho-nii so certain they weren't.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sasuke didn't speak to her for almost two weeks, during which time Tsubasa-sensei introduced her more fully to what she'd come to think of as the 'mature' forms she'd use for the rest her partnership with Shiho-nii. He called them after the flowers whose shapes they aped, to be a pointed remember that she was to be delicate and precise, even when it would be easy to grow sloppy and arrogant with the guan-dao.

Sakura poured her energy into learning them, etching the memory into her muscles under Tsubasa-sensei's eagle-eyed gaze and Jun's sharp commentary. She was good with Shiho-nii. She was determined to become excellent.

Shihi-nii had been water-natured when he'd been alive, so she tried to reprise that in each movement, giving it grace and flow to disguise the raw power behind each strike. Years of training with a weapon much heavier than most ninja ever handled had given her strength, but she tentatively began to use her perfect chakra control to augment that natural strength. And not just her own body, but Shiho-nii as well, the nature of her weapon allowing her to channel her chakra into it like an extension of herself, just as one day she'd be able to use Shiho-nii's chakra as her own. The first time she drove Shiho-nii into the ground and opened a chasm, she'd actually shrieked with delight and flushed a red so deep that it had taken long minutes for Tsubasa-sensei and Jun to stop laughing.

So it was that she'd been quite pleased with herself as she deftly navigated the bustling streets of Konohagakure as she ran an errand for Ran-oba-san, but not so much so she was startled when someone snatched at her wrist. She decided not to break the hold when she recognized Sasuke's chakra and instead turned to look at him expectantly. "I need to talk to you," he told her.

When she only continued to wait patiently for him to speak, he grimaced. "Not _here_," he said pointedly.

Sakura weighed the urgency of completing Ran-oba-san's errand against Sasuke's demand, but he had no intention of allowing her the time to decide, tugging her none-too-gently along. Rather than be dragged through the marketplace, she matched his gait, curious now where the conversation would take place as it seemed they passed a number of narrow alleys and tiny parks that would have been suitable for a conversation. She wondered if that meant he intended to shout some more, though he'd seemingly exhausted the white-hot part of his anger before he'd left.

It was only when she spotted a very familiar insignia on white-washed walls that she realized where he'd brought her. Into his sanctuary, the place where Sasuke lived in silent contemplation of all that he had lost. His footsteps were sure as he led her through the Uchiha district, eventually reaching a house. He hesitated at the door, then opened it when a sense of gravitas that boded ill for whatever he'd brought her here to tell her. He stopped just inside the threshold and closed his fingers more firmly on her arm when she would have stepped further inside.

"This...is where it happened," he said heavily. "Where I found him. Found them. Where my life ended."

Whatever he meant to tell her, it had not dislodged his well-developed sense of melodrama, but Sasuke was attempting to communicate something to her, something that she sensed was very important to him. Important enough to make him be the one to reach out.

"I'm going to kill Itachi," he declared solemnly. "I don't care what you think or say about him, that's not going to change. But I thought about the rest. At first I decided that I didn't give a damn about what outsider thought about my family, so long as I avenged them, but then I remembered the pride Father and Mother took in the reputation of the clan. Itachi already killed them. I can't destroy what's left of their legacy just to get to him. Because that would mean Itachi has won."

"That's a very reasonable decision," Sakura ventured.

Sasuke snorted. "You mean that as praise, right?"

She hummed an affirmative, then shifted as she waited for Sasuke to release his now completely unnecessary hold. He didn't seem to notice her restlessness, instead glaring at the floor. Dust had settled elsewhere, but that floor had been kept meticulously scrubbed. She waited a long time as he gathered the strength to turn away from the darkened interior of the home, pulling her out the door and locking it behind them.


	22. Shake It Until It Breaks (Part I)

A/N: I couldn't bear to revisit the Land of Tea arc. So this is what you get instead.

The First Flower of Spring

Chapter Twenty-two

Shake It Until It Breaks (Part I)

"I take it all my students survived my coma? No permanently debilitating injuries?"

"Oh?" Tsunade said, honey-blonde brows rising as she shifted her attention from his chart to his person. "You heard about their encounter with Uchiha Itachi already? That's almost impressive."

"Encounter with Itachi?" Kakashi repeated blankly. "I was actually talking about unsupervised practice and a complete lack of understanding about what constitutes acceptable aggression in sparring, but sure, why not an encounter with the massacre-artist?" _It must be the year for psychopaths, _he thought with black humor.

Tsunade was regarding him oddly, perfectly plucked brows furrowed. She hadn't been back in the village a full week yet and already he'd overheard nurses forming a betting pool on how deep the genjutsu ran. "According to Jiraiya, he'd taken Naruto out of the village when he came looking for me, while your other students apparently overheard a conversation about your battle with Itachi. The jounin involved have already been appropriately disciplined for talking about S-class criminals where rash genin can overhear. And I told them that the next time they're too preoccupied to notice a genin with a chakra signature as loud as Uchiha Sasuke's coming into range, they can go back to being chunin. At any rate, the little pink one-Haruno Sakura, isn't it?-she followed Sasuke when he went tearing off after his brother. They found him, unfortunately enough, which is something an ANBU team should have been doing, rather than genin."

"No amount of tracking skills are comparable to being led by destiny," Kakashi quipped blandly. That earned him a more than exploratory prod in his side, which left him gasping in pain. "Patient," he wheezed.

Tsunade glared down at him. "That's right, you are. But I'm not so patient, so no more snide commentary, Hatake."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," he agreed meekly, doing his best impression of an abashed and repentant ninja.

Tsunade snorted. "It would figure that these would by _your _students."

Kakashi swallowed a response that questioned what exactly she thought he'd done to earn a team where the jinchuriki was the normal one.

"Right. So, your students are faced with S-class criminals and their first instinct is apparently not to escape, but to open dialogue. The Uchiha and Sakura didn't want to tell me what was said, but when I told them their next destination was over to T&I for a word-for-word transcript, they agreed. Sasuke is very lucky he isn't dead from rank stupidity, but your other student wanted to ask _questions." _

Tsunade pinned him with a glare. "She would," he agreed weakly.

"Oh? So it's normal now for genin in this village to imply to S-class criminals they haven't killed nearly enough people?"

"Well, no," Kakashi hedged, "but Sakura-chan is, ah, highly objective? And has poor timing?" he added when he saw his first quasi-answer hadn't satisfied Tsunade.

The Hokage frowned down at him. "Your squad is going to get themselves killed."

_Sasuke might, _Kakashi admitted mentally. _But Naruto is highly durable and Sakura-well, Sakura at least will go into it with her eyes open. _

Tsunade sighed and worked her thumb and forefinger along the bridge of her nose. "I already set the two of them to their punishments. They have been and will be doing demeaning D-ranks until you're released from the hospital, at which time you will bring your squad under control, Katashi. The next time I hear about them haring after missing-nin without orders to do so, if they come back in one piece, I'll personally make sure they don't stay that way. Understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sasuke was scowling as Naruto demonstrated the jutsu that the Sannin Jiraiya had apparently managed to explain in simple enough terms even the dead-last could learn it. He warred between the impulse to steal it with Sharingan or ask outright, but decided to do neither. Impressive as it was-apparently impressive enough to win Tsunade back to Konohagakure-even Naruto had seen that there were limits to its usefulness. He had questions he wanted to ask of his brother before he died.

"I mean, it's great and all," he said as chakra whorled and hummed above his palm, "but you should see what it does to trees. It pretty much just makes things dead real fast-except if you're a freaky medic-nin-and, I dunno, but I don't really see a lot of missions that call for lots of dead people in our immediate future." Naruto winced as he let the chakra construct unravel, wind rustling through his shaggy blond hair. "And you have to be _really _close. If an enemy is faster, especially if they use a weapon with a longer reach, I've pretty much signed off on a suicide mission. I mean, that shark-dude with the sword would probably just lop off my arm at the elbow and laugh about it."

Slow and pointed applause drew the attention of the three genin. "That was a very insightful analysis, Naruto," Kakashi congratulated the blond.

Who took a step back warily. Sakura also rose, but Sasuke chose to retain his seat. If he leaned his back and put his palms flat to the ground to quell any possibility of trembling, that was his business.

Because while Kakashi was smiling, he was very clearly _not happy. _

"We didn't incur any additional paperwork," Sakura defended immediately. "Tsunade-sama made us fill out all the additional forms ourselves."

Naruto buried his face in his hands and made an odd noise of distress. "I don't think that's what he's worried about, Sakura-chan," he muttered.

Sakura glanced over at him.

"We weren't caught leaving or returning to the village," Sasuke voiced irritably. "If Jiraiya hadn't reported us, it wouldn't have been a problem at all."

"And if you'd died in your little adventure?" Kakashi prompted.

"My family would not hold the village accountable. Especially if I died of my own foolishness," Sakura replied.

"And what about your poor teacher's heart?"

Pink brows drew together. "I assume you mean 'heart' metaphorically. Metaphorically, it would doubtless heal quite quickly. After all, there is no need to waste regard or regret on those who die in service to their stupidity."

"So you agree that confronting two S-class missing-nin was stupid?"

"I agree that it was ill-advised for genin of our current capabilities," Sakura conceded. Her dense vocabulary gave the lie of her composure.

Breaking rules made Sakura anxious, which in turn made her increasingly act like she was guest-lecturing at the Academy. That was something he'd learned early about his teammate, but for the first time he thought about why she'd bothered to accompany him at all. It would have been just as much in character, if not more, to send him off with a dire warning about the consequences of his own actions at the gates. And then she'd confronted him about Orochimaru and power afterwards, told him about her family. Was it possible that, in some strange way, Sakura _cared_?

The idea was so strange in light of her revelations he almost didn't notice that Kakashi's pointed gaze had fixed on him. He only scowled at the older ninja.

"Sasuke? Have anything to say?"

"No," Sasuke replied. "I don't regret it, so I have no intention of apologizing for it."

"Well, at least you're honest," Kakashi remarked with some asperity. "Unfortunately for you, honesty in this case was _not _the best policy."

"You can tell when I lie anyway," he grumbled.

"Well, yes, but that isn't the point. The point is that you're not even making an effort to admit that what you did might have been motivated by events that give you very valid reasons to hate Uchiha Itachi, but _how _you went about it showed poorer planning than one of Naruto's pranks."

Sasuke's scowl was threatening to become permanently engraved on his face when Kakashi sighed. "You and I are going to talk about this," Kakashi promised, "without an audience. But for now, let's see if we can't do something about some training. What with the losses we experienced during the Exam, Tsunade-sama is going to have to take some desperate measures if she wants to meet demand. Hopefully," he said with great irony, "you're not going to be experiencing another misassigned A-class, but because you, my dear little disciples, have re-taught me the meaning of 'expect the unexpected,' let's see what we can do about equipping you with some skills just in case."

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Sasuke wasn't certain what skills were supposed to be built by entrapping him for three days in a one bedroom apartment with his teammates, but he was absolutely certain that he did not need them. Their client had been dragged in protest from the premises, the family-the ones who'd chartered and paid for the mission-leaving them with whispers the effect of 'best of luck'.

Upon seeing their mission stage, he'd rated the chances of their surviving this one very low. "We should set it on fire," he'd said in dull horror at the mountains of _stuff _that left only narrow paths open through the...could he even call it a house any longer?

Kakashi's hand had descended on his shoulder like an iron shackle. "Now, Sasuke, don't be such a pessimist. Besides, setting some of this stuff on fire would make it even more of a potential health hazard than it already is. This is even classed as a C-rank mission."

"You're punishing us," Sasuke protested.

"Yes, Sasuke, this is what regret feels like," Kakashi said dryly. "Whatever my reasons, this is your mission. You have three days and my full confidence. I've already made arrangements for disposal of most of the trash, you just need to separate it and set it outside. I expect this to look at least habitable by the time I get back. And you're going to stay on-site for the duration. We haven't had a team-building exercise for a while and there's nothing like close quarters and shared drudgery to really drive that point home."

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei's still mad," Naruto murmured in a low voice to Sakura, who made a sound of agreement as she looked wide-eyed on the chaos.

"What happened to mission skills?"

"I taught you a jutsu."

"One."

"It's my original jutsu. Developed but not mastered until I received my Sharingan."

"_Kakashi,_" Sasuke growled.

"You really should be honored."

"Sakura says you handed me a hammer and invited me to look at every problem as a nail."

"Nonsense. You learned your taijutsu style and fire techniques from your clan, but you have equal or better affinity with lightning, which isn't exactly an element commonly utilized in combat in Konohagakure. There's some medical ninjutsu, but I don't know any of it. And as for the ones I've learned from enemy-nin...well, let's just say that I don't feel like teaching you those just yet. What I've given you is a template-you'll have to make your own design from it."

Sasuke did not feel honored. He felt vaguely horrified even at the thought of using Kakashi's technique. It had been alright in the learning stages, as he felt the raw power of harnessed lightning coat his hand. But then he'd made him try it. It had been one of the oversized beasts from the Forest of Death, but there'd still been that queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he rammed his hand through the fleshy wall of its side until he'd touched something wet and pulsing. The lightning had leaped from his hand into the creature, burning its way down into the earth through paths of least resistance.

Kakashi had described the damage to him in graphic detail in a bland sort of voice, but he hadn't let him pull his hand free. His nostrils had been filled with the smell of melting hair where he'd shoved his hand in. He'd come very close to retching, but he breathed shallowly through his mouth as Kakashi explained how the current had caused ventricular fibrillation, the heart muscle contracting irregularly, the points where the lightning had exited leaving fleshy craters, arc burns leaving a path of further melted hair. If he'd only managed to graze an opponent but still transfer enough energy to damage, he described the 'lightning flowers' that could bloom more visibly on a human opponent, leaving them marked forever.

It was a quick death, but it was not a clean one.

Rare was the moment when he recalled that his sensei was hailed as a prodigy of a bloodier age, but he remembered it very clearly in that moment. And he wondered what lesson he'd thought to impart, but all he could think of was part of the left lung tangling beneath fingers no linger stiffened for the thrust and the _smell. _

He was in no hurry to repeat the experience with a human target. He'd come to terms with the smell and sight of burning flesh given the fire jutsu he used, but that was still a distant carnage. Not clean though, which was why he preferred to use it mostly as distraction and depend upon kunai to achieve the kill when it finally came to that. This was something more awful and savage yet, being wrist-deep in someone else, feeling the last tremors of their body as they died.

No, there was nothing he wanted there. Whatever Kakashi's motive had been, he'd made something very clear to Sasuke. He did not mind violence, but he despised carnage. One day, he'd been fast and sure enough to see that his enemies died before they even noticed. And he had no intention of shoving his hand into any more chest cavities if he could help it.

But this was almost as distasteful. "There are _cleaning services _for this sort of thing," he growled.

Kakashi rubbed sheepishly at the back of his head. "They, ah, don't do ninja residences. Lots of traps and weapons and maybe some inadequately stored poisons in here. And _then_ there are the traps set on purpose. So watch out for those."

Sasuke's earlier opinion was reinforced. Kakashi was _definitely _punishing them.

-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-

Naruto kept a watchful eye on Sasuke, who looked torn by his near obsessive-compulsive desire for cleanliness and an urgent desire to be _somewhere else. _He really, really got the latter. "Who else votes we paper this place with explosive tags and hope for the best?" he asked.

"Idiot," Sasuke intoned, but there was an edge of consideration in his voice.

He glanced over at Sakura to get her opinion of the task, but her eyes were trained on a nearby stack mountain of what appeared to be trash, head cocked in that way of hers. "I think it's looking at me," she remarked.

"What?" Naruto asked, but then his eyes caught on the single largest cockroach he'd ever seen. And having lived where he did, Naruto had seen some cockroaches. Enormous antennae quivered, but the rest of its fist-sized body was at rest. "Is that natural?" he asked, his voice an awkward squeak.

"Kakashi-sensei did not apprise of this client holding a summoning contract with cockroaches, so we should be free to kill it."

"Yeah," Naruto said, creeping backwards so Sakura was between him and the insect. "Go for it, Sakura-chan."

In a movement little more than a flicker, one of her kunai had split open its body and roach-ooze was soaking into decades old newspaper. The vibration was apparently felt within the pile and several more insects took flight, only to be pinned to walls and ceiling by senbon. "Traps and giant bugs. It's a Forest of Death reprise," Naruto said as he watched the nearby piles warily for more movement.

"This is disgusting," Sasuke agreed. "How could such a slob be a shinobi?"

"Perhaps he was exceedingly organized in his professional life and equally as lax in his personal?" Sakura suggested.

Sasuke grunted."Well," he said grimly at last, "staring at it won't accomplish anything. At least the dead-last will finally be useful for something."

"I know you say that with love, but you really need to find a new song to sing, Sasuke," Naruto muttered darkly. "So how am I supposed to be useful here?"

"Use your shadow clones to get rid of this trash. Sakura can do pest-control. And I'll see what sort of supplies Kakashi left for us to use." Naruto gave the nearly floor-to-ceiling mountains a gimlet stare, then threw Sasuke a sloppy salute.

"Gotcha," Naruto confirmed, "but I'm going to go one the assumption that _everything _is trash. Just 'ta let you know."

Sasuke scowled in what he assumed was confirmation before thrusting a pair of thick rubber gloves at Naruto. "If you catch something, you might give it to us."

Tugging on the gloves, he summoned as many Narutoids as could fit in the limited space and gave them their orders. For a moment he thought there would be rebellion in the ranks, but even if he really didn't want to clean up this mess, the clones had limited free will. Soon there was a procession not unlike a mound of ants in reverse as they trundled by with bloated bags of garbage, though Sasuke reappeared from the kitchen to give a dire warning about properly sorting the trash.

It was universally disgusting, but he was glad Sakura seemed not to mind too much the bugs, picking them up as she impaled them. He corralled two Narutoids to act as spotters at the space gradually widened and more insects were flushed from hiding and they also acted to dismantle a really excessive number of traps. Any number of things came crawling out, including two scorpions and one furry spider he was absolutely certain wasn't native to Konohagakure. When the parade of insects tapered off, Sakura volunteered to attempt the kitchen, pointing out that her guardian did run a bakery and if there was one thing she had experience scrubbing, it was counters.

Sasuke emerged from wherever he'd been looking grimly victorious and mildly traumatized. "The bathroom's not all the way clean, but it's functional. It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting."

"You have really unexpected talents, bastard," Naruto commented.

"If it weren't for his personality, Sasuke-san would make an excellent spouse," Sakura complimented from the kitchen. "He has property, breeding, and he _cleans._"

"Unfortunately he comes with scowl included," Naruto grinned. "You've got that one right, Sakura-chan! He's going to have to _really _make it up in other areas. Maybe you should take a look in the bedroom, get some pointers. I've been in shops that didn't have an echi selection like this guy. If this place wasn't so gross, I'd pocket a few to bribe the Ero-Sannin with."

Sasuke's brow twitched. "Exactly what were you doing in shops like that, idiot?"

"Research," Naruto chirruped. "The Sexy no Jutsu had to be convincing and, unlike some people who will not be named, I'm smart enough to know most actual naked ladies aren't happy to be anatomy lessons."

"That's disgusting," Sasuke pronounced.

"No," Naruto drawled, "it's funny. You just don't think so because I used you that once."

Sasuke glared at him and Naruto raised his hands placatingly. "Hey, I promised not to do it again. It's not like I can't produce other pretty-boys. It just feels _weird _to try and imagine what girls think of when they think 'sex object', ya know?"

"No," Sasuke replied, "I really don't. And somehow I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not knowing. And where'd you even pick up that phrase?"

"Eavesdropping," Naruto admitted shamelessly. "Shinobi are taught to expect the unexpected, so you have to pull something _really _unexpected if you want to distract 'em. And if the talk of drunk off-duty jounin is anything to go by, naked women seemed the way to go."

"That's almost clever, but it's still irritating as hell."

"Just because that pale skin of yours blushes easily isn't any reason to look down on the Sexy no Jutsu."

"I do not blush," Sasuke grit out.

Naruto gave him a _look_. Not as good as one of Sakura's looks, but he'd been practicing this one. He put in just the right arch of brow to paint clear disbelief on his face. "Wanna try that one out, Sasuke? 'Cause I got ten ryo and lunch at Ichiraku that says you blush when the smoke clears."

"It's indecent."

"Kind of the point."

"And the point of this mission is cleaning, Naruto-san, Sasuke-san," Sakura reminded them from the doorway of the kitchen.

Naruto glanced around to find that his Narutoids had stopped making themselves useful. "Guess the work doesn't continue while the brains of the operation takes a break," he grumbled. "Okay guys, we got a deadline!"

Team Seven normally went their separate ways when training ended and they'd come and gone at irregular intervals on the Wave mission, so it'd still felt like they had their own space. Now, however, when they got tired, dirty, and irritable, there was no escape from his teammates. Sasuke grew sharper edges than usual, snapping even at Sakura. Sakura became increasingly silent, but she didn't falter in her diligence, scrubbing until her hands were red and raw from the bleach and hot water she was using.

She didn't complain, but Sasuke noticed. "You _idiot_," he growled, snapping up her hands in his. "This place is filthy and why aren't you wearing _gloves_?"

"I wore gloves when I cleaned the worst of it," Sakura reassured him. "You've never done scalding water training? The water isn't really hot enough to do it properly, but the object is to use your chakra to circulate the heat away from the point of contact before it can damage the skin. Tsu-I'm going to begin fire-walking next week, but I thought I'd practice with the scalding water while I had the chance. I seem to have overlooked the bleach," she confessed sheepishly.

Naruto watched Sasuke warily, because he looked like he couldn't decide whether to brain Sakura over the head with something heavy or do something to make it better. You could never tell with Sasuke.

He took a deep, forced breath in through his teeth. "And why didn't you stop when it started hurting?"

"...I wanted to finish this counter?" Sakura tried. "It didn't seem worth stopping for. It isn't even a proper injury, really."

"Until the skin breaks, you catch something from this dump, and you die in misery and regret," Sasuke told her.

"Way to be dramatic," Naruto murmured. He pulled off his gloves and rubbed at his eyes. He was actually starting to feel nauseas from exhaustion, which was explained when he saw morning sunlight outside the window. Kakashi had pressed them into service in the early morning and now it was mid-morning again-they'd worked through the night with only two rest breaks to eat things hastily snatched and devoured from their packs, then returned to their task. And it was hardly the kind of work they were used to, so it was no wonder his teammates were being more weird than usual.

With a sound like firecrackers going off, he clumsily let go of his shadow-clones and groaned as their feedback made him sag with tiredness. The sick feeling made itself known with a vengeance and he groaned again. "Okay guys, if I don't sleep now, I'm going to be sick all over this floor and I don't think we need more mess. And Sasuke has obviously been watching _waaay _too much drama in his free time, so I it's time we all took a nice long nap. Including you, Sakura-chan, though I'm gonna guess you've done some sleep deprivation training."

She nodded placidly.

"Do you actually have hobbies or just a training schedule?" he asked in exasperation. "Never mind. I'm going to go find the cleanest open space on the floor and go admire it from up close."

Pulling out bedding, Naruto eyed the floor, which was now mostly clear, the large debris having been swept up. It still needed scrubbed yet, so he dug back into the pack for the tarp he knew would be there. Spreading it and dumping the bedding on top, he hastily erected the frame that shaped the mosquito netting that was all the tent most Konoha shinobi used on balmy nights, tugging it easily into place through long practice. When that was done, he stomped to the bathroom to rinse away the worst of the sweat and grime and changed into clothing that stank less like sweat and worse things.

Flopping eagerly onto his bedding, he cooed sweet nothings into his pillow. He was still at it when Sasuke kicked his legs out of the way. "Stay on your side," Sasuke warned. "You snore _and _drool."

Naruto rolled his eyes even though he knew Sasuke couldn't see. "If I end up on your side, I've somehow managed to crawl over Sakura without waking her up. I think someone's paranoid."

Sasuke scoffed. When Sakura'd finished in the bathroom and turned off the lights, which really didn't do anything about the sun streaming in through the windows, she padded up to join them.

"What, not going to snuggle your big pointy stick?" Naruto asked as she ducked under the netting and pulled it securely shut behind her. He'd lived in an orphanage before entering the Academy, so he was very familiar with all sorts of comfort objects used to substitute for the attention it just wasn't practical to give so children, but the first time they'd struck camp and shared space, he'd goggled at Sakura's bizarre sleep habit. Shinobi slept with their weapons tucked beneath their pillow, sure, but what she did just looked silly. She curled up like a pillbug next to her polearm, pillow half-covering the shaft so she could tuck one hand comfortably next to it. It was adorable and disturbing all at once, which was a pretty accurate description of Sakura in general.

Her nose wriggled up in distaste. "It's dirty."

"And your weapon is too good for that sort of thing, but we aren't?" he demanded into his pillow.

Sakura made a soft sound of agreement. "I won't sully Shiho-nii for my comfort," she murmured as she eased between them.

"You stick it in people," Naruto muttered, too tired and sick to fall immediately to sleep, but not exactly up for deep conversation or awkward silence either. Sasuke was weird to share sleep-space with. Naruto was usually the first one asleep, as his comfort requirements were apparently way below Sasuke's. But he sprawled, Sakura pillbugged and Sasuke tried to make out like he was the only one out of the lot with good sleep posture, holding himself so stiffly there was absolutely no way he was relaxed enough to sleep. When Naruto'd woken in the middle of the night to take a piss, he'd had all of about three seconds to witness that Sasuke was a gravitator. Not quite a snuggler, not even sleep making him that relaxed around his teammates, but his back was nearly pressing against the barrier of Sakura's guan-dao, which was much closer than he'd started out the night. Unfortunately for practical joke purposes, he also seemed incredibly sensitive to the breathing of his tentmates, waking moments after Naruto had slowly levered himself upright even though there hadn't been foreign chakra or hostility to indicate an enemy.

"People are beautiful," Sakura replied sleepily.

There was a grunt from Sasuke that he was too tired to translate, but it sounded further away than he'd expected. Curiosity warred with burning arm muscles that had spent more than twenty-odd hours hauling tons of trash, but curiosity won. Shoving himself up just enough to peer over Sakura, he found that Sasuke had claimed the opposite wall of their little insect-free sanctuary, which was a little extreme even for Sasuke.

"I don't think Sakura has cooties or anything, bastard."

Another grunt answered him.

"Seriously, Sasuke, if you roll over you're going to get tangled in the netting and you're bring this thing down on our heads. And I think I'll have just enough energy to smother you. Sakura doesn't bite."

"Leave him be, Naruto-san," Sakura suggested.

With a huff, he flopped back down on his pillow and let his mind drift. The musty scent of the room was not helping, so he tried to focus his too-acute sense of smell on his teammates. Comforting and familiar scents were always relaxing. But not tonight, because Sasuke was more anxious than made any sense. The other boy had always been weird about teamwork things that weren't working towards an obvious objective, like eating together or sharing a room, but then he'd been reserved, standoffish, and only mildly anxious. In his head, Sasuke was the cat that had had its fur stroked backwards, all offended dignity and ready claws. Now he was a wet cat, trembling and bristling at some threat Naruto just didn't get.

He hadn't noticed the sharp scent of fear earlier, so why now? Of course, he hadn't been focusing on it, either, but there wasn't a real threat here. So what was Sasuke reacting to? Prodding his sluggish mind to something like awareness, he tried to reason out what was here that would make Sasuke afraid to be in the dark with it.

A/N: If you can use Raikiri to cut a lightning bolt, I thought it might be reasonable to expect that the damage inflicted by it would be similar. And I'm not looking down on Rasengan, really, but it sort of turned into the be-all, end-all attack for Naruto. Not fun, not clever, not foxlike. So not the defining move for this Naruto. It's unfair if I take only Sakura different places, isn't it?


End file.
